Re: Today's Game 1/18 Thomas and Declerqc!!!!!

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 12:25 AM 1/19/98 PST, Tony Pinto wrote:
>After watching one of my first Celtics games today and getting to see the
>players pay under Pitino and what you guys have said and the game summaries
by >Bill( Which are great) two players really stood out to me that you guys
talk a >little about but to me seem to be big contributers. They are Andrew
>DeClercq(SP?) and Thomas.

Y'know, reading this brought three thoughts. The first was that yeah,
someone seeing little of the Cs other than this game would come away with
the idea that they ARE big contributors (i.e. regularly). Which lead into
thought two, that that's the problem with not actually seeing the games.
DeClerq had the game of his Cs career to date, displaying flashes of all the
good things we heard about him when he was signed, but that we've seen very
little of most of this year. Don't get me wrong -he DID have a fine game,
and the things he provided were things we need: some inside presence, board
work, big man defense. But you can't call him a big contributor much before
this game. Thomas is a slightly differnt, but related case. He's been coming
on more and more the last few games, as opposed to just this one. But the
case is the same that before that he showed little, although in fairness to
Thomas, he's had a lot less opportunity. Thought three was the opposite one,
whose inception was with Paul's post about his Laker friend (*shudder* <g>)
marvelling over Walker. Watching every game makes me more conscious of the
warts, and maybe too conscious. While Paul's friend marvels at Walker's
ballhandling, I'm more apt to think of how often I want to shake him for
causing an unnecessary turnover by fancy dribbling his way around to show
off (exposing the ball, or bouncing it off his knee, or just losing it),
rather than going for the straightforward drive. So it's probably good for
me that you generated thoughts one and two to remind me that I can be just
as offbase the other way.

Anyways, I agree that DeClerq and Thomas should receive some more playing
time, both as a reward for what they've done recently and to encourage them
to continue it. And with all the negative talk about the Cs I still hear
from friends around the league, it was nice that the guys put on such a good
showing for the national audience. Except Walker, who I agree with Howard
David on the radio is probably having most of his offensive problems because
of trying too hard to impress people and get the all-star pick...but then
again, I just said I should step baxk and stop concentrating on the warts <g>.

<snip>
-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net