RE: RP & Williams

[John Lyell <Jlyell@concentric.net>]

I have to disagree, Wiliams was a move expensive mcCarty.  Not big enough 
for the 4, not quick enough or a good enough outside shooter for the 3.


On Wednesday, January 28, 1998 9:16 AM, K. Kveraga 
[SMTP:6166kkver@umbsky.cc.umb.edu] wrote:
> Adam Suchocki wrote:
>
> > Now, to be honest, I love watching this team play, and I've gained a 
ton of respect for Pitino as a coach.  But I'm not willing to cut him a ton 
of slack for the bad rookie mistakes he made in his first stint as an NBA 
GM.  He has corrected a lot of his initial personell mistakes with a lot 
more poise than he had early on, but the truth of the matter is...the 
talent pool for this team is not as big as it could have been if more 
planning and restraint had been used early on.  No amount of spin is going 
to ma
> > ke me believe that it was reasonable to spend all of our cap room 
before the salary cap was raised (every other team in the league seemed to 
understand the need to wait) - and no amount of spin is going to make me 
believe that we got fair value for Williams.
> >
>
> These are my sentiments as well. Granted, I may be biased - Pitino's 
getting rid of E. Williams did not exactly endear the GM part of RP to me, 
since I loved watching Eric work in the paint, and thought he and Walker 
would become a powerful duo on offense. However, right after Pitino dumped 
Williams, one of Boston's sportswriters (May? Ryan?) wrote that his litmus 
test for Pitino was how he was going to deal with Williams. According to 
the scribe, Pitino saw through the gaudy numbers and sparkling offensive
> repertoire the selfish stat chaser etc. etc. that Eric was, and promptly 
rid the Celtics of this cancer, thus passing the litmus test with flying 
colors. (Can't guarantee the exact details, but that was the gist). I was 
surprised, to say the least, about the writer's opinion of Eric, since I 
had never thought of him as a Todd Day type. Obviously, a scribe is closer 
to the action than the fans are, as fans usually don't get to fly on the 
team plane, sit at the press table, and hold private conversations with
> players and coaches. Another (remote) possibility is that the guy, for 
one reason or another, was trying to rationalize the departure of a 
talented young forward.
> I wonder if anybody on the list would agree with the sportswriter, and 
why.
>