RE: AUSTIN,AUSTIN & DEFINITELY AUSTIN...

["Noah P. Evans" <ishbak@conknet.com>]

> We don't need another "get outta ma way" player in the mold of Geiger.
> Sure, he can be decent but what we really need is a big man with very
> consistent and dependable in the paint scoring and rebounding.  We need a
> leader inside the paint and among the big men we have Austin
> would certainly be IT if ever we sign him.

While Austin is a far better scorer than Geiger, their rebounding ability
and defensive ability is about the same. As for his leadership, Austin is
mostly subserviant(which is good because he won't clash with Pitino). So
Austin has one advantage over Geiger, scoring ability. Whether or not we
need that ability is a 6 million dollar question.

> Most of our first five players are ball hogs(walker, anderson, mercer, and
> pierce) but all are outside shooters or slashers, none are postup
> scorers...or money in the bank once inside the paint.

Walker is our post up scorer... for what it's worth. But people are quick to
forget that Walker didn't even try to play postup offense until last year.
Given his learning curve has been Einsteinian up to this point, it would be
reasonable to assert that Walker should have a post game next year(watching
tapes of Walker during the Carr democracy vs the Pitino junta is a good way
to observe Walker's evolution in action, before last season Walker's shot
had no consistant form, he never followed through and his elbow was always
at odd angles, and Toine rarely got goo dposition on post opportuinities
usually going into the part of the lane with the most traffic instead) which
would put Walker into direct conflict with Austin. Given Walker's volatile
personality and youthful demeanour that sort of conflict might be ...
unfortunate.
	As for mercer and pierce being ball hogs, they can't hog the ball. When
Kenny's healthy the ball is almost always in his hands for most of the
possession, so the only possessions that they get are the ones Kenny deigns
to give them(which BTW is great given Kenny's prowess running an offense).

Noah