'Toine v.'Nique? Fahgettaboutit

[Jo Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

RichSmall wrote:
"I know I will get flamed for this, but he (Antoine Walker) still
reminds me of Dominique."


****

Hi Rich:

This is not a flame, but, at least statistically speaking, Ron Mercer -
and emphatically not Antoine Walker - better deserves your comparison to
Dominique Wilkins.

I honestly love Ron Mercer to death, but at this stage he is basically
(like 'Nique) a sky walkin', medium range jump shot stickin', okay open
court dribblin', adequate defendin', one-dimensional scorer who will
need to work A LOT harder next year even to get to 5 rebounds or 5
assists per game.

Don't give me any "but, but, but..." Rich,  because it's fundamentally
true. If you think I'm being unfair, look at Mercer's non-scoring stats
this year. (By the way, I believe that next year Ron will come into his
own as a star, and that, anyway, he already has Kobe "Where's the Beef"
Bryant for breakfast.)

Now let's turn to 'Toine.

IMO, I don't think we Bostonians appreciate how much heart and guts it
takes for any guy -no matter how tall and athletic- to get 10+ rebounds
per night while still maintaining the energy over 40 NBA minutes to make
alert "pass/shoot/drive" split-second decisions on offense.

I'm sure many of you on this list try to stay in shape by playing
sporadically in some sort of YMCA pick-up or intramural/company league
(in my case, the mighty United Nations' inter-agency league...our motto
"Beat UNICEF"). If you play the "slow forward" position like me, I
believe you also would immediately recognize the strangely colossal
difference between a lucky-bounce 5-8 rebound night and delivering 10+
rebounds on average every, single, freakin' game. At least for me, it
has always been an "either/or" proposition:  I either focus on getting
more than 5 random rebounds per game or I conserve all my energy to
avoid making retarded (good Boston word) mistakes on offense. IMO, none
of us even at age 21 (like AW) would last 8-10 minutes playing
man-to-man defense in the NBA against the quickest 220-280 lb athletes
in the world, much less 40-minutes-per-game x 82-games-per-season like
Walker. At least for me, one game would be more brutal than running the
Boston Marathon in 3.5 hours.

As I've said before, if Antoine Walker's statistical contributions to
his team were so easy to replicate, then why can't Shareef, McDyess,
Pippen and at least 20 other 6-10, strong, lightning-quick guys do it?

Have a good weekend everyone,


JoeHironaka
Paris


p.s. Trade away the right to draft Doleac for a future lottery pick? At
this point, I would vote definitely yes. IMO, it looks like a hopelessly
thin draft, unless we reach for one of the foreign or domestic
teenagers.