Garrity v. Goog

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

Elgin Booth wrote:

"Pat Garrity is in the mold of a Tom Gugliotta, although he may be more
of
a small forward."

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Although I hope Pat Garrity is the next Bill Bradley (the definition of
an intelligent basketball player), from what's been written he may not
even be as good an athlete as Michael Smith, the 30ppg Mormon kid that
the Celtics drafted ahead of both Tim Hardaway and Shawn Kemp back in
1989 (I think it was 1989).

Of course, one never knows for sure about these things. I’ll admit I
hardly even noticed that Gugliotta was anything special back when he was
at NC State.

As for Michael Doleac, I could again be wrong but I personally still see
him as a slightly inferior Danny Ferry/Christian Laetner type 6-11 guy.
He has a nice instinct for where rebounds will bounce etc., but IMO his
butt is not nearly thick enough to post up or box out most (if not all)
the starting centers in the NBA not named "Travis".  Ditto for
Kentucky's Nazr Mohamad (IMO, his waist is cut way too narrow for more
weight training to make a sufficient difference). Plus, in the NCAA
final, I was very disappointed to see Nazr finish his paint moves with
weak layups high off the backboard, even when he had a clear path to
dunk or draw a hard foul.

There is a specific reason why I love big butts so much.  Like others on
our list (e.g. Greg-O), I regard it as a historical inevitability that
we will see annual NBA finals clashes between the Celts and Lakers
beginning at the dawn of the next millennium. Even if Antoine Walker can
cancel out Love Shaq's occasional 43 point 16 rebound outbursts, IMO our
Celtics still would have a very hard time getting to a seventh game
against the Lakers (once it goes to seven, we all know which team will
prevail..). IMO, the Lakers really just have better talent than what the
Celtics have or can realistically afford to add to the team, barring a
lottery miracle.

So getting to my point about my adoration of big butts, in addition to
being a huge Sumo and Opera fan (honestly), I think the only way the
Celts can win the NBA championship as a so-called "Donut" team (no
center) would be to acquire a couple of wide bodies (Greg Kite types) to
hack Shaq with 12-15 shooting and non-shooting fouls (hip checks, arm
locks etc) per game, in addition to running the rest of the Fakers
ragged with our full-court press while turning the Fleet Center’s
air-conditioning system to "off".

The reason I strongly feel this way is because:

1) The Celts can't afford to sign a great "double-double" center anyway,
nor can we afford IMO to blow all our remaining cap money on over-paying
the FA centers out there. For example, if the Celts go permanently over
the cap to add a Matt Geiger this summer (plus re-sign AW), does anyone
on this list seriously think that we would match up adequately with the
Lakers? Fuhgettaboutit!

2) This is not an original opinion on the list, but I think the Celts
would be far better off adding a shotblocking/rebounding power forward
combo (hopefully Popeye plus Outlaw/Ratliff). IMO, by adding an
unselfish role-player (a shot-blocking version of Paul Silas) to help
Antoine Walker dominate the boards, we just might have enough to raise
number 17 thru 20 to the rafters (provided the Celtics eventually can
rank in the top five in FG% allowed like all other Pitino-coached
teams). Then we'd be dangerous. Who would want to play a team like that
over a seven-game series?

Okay blah, blah, blah....I’m done.


"Go Bird, Ainge and Cowens in 98 Playoffs"


JoeHironaka
Paris

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