Re:Draft'97v'98

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

Despite his recent late-game heroics since he joined the Raptors, I
noticed a statistical decline in Chauncey Billups’ FG% (37.5%  vs.
39.0%) and assists per game (3.4  vs  4.2), not to mention an increase
in turnovers (2.8 from 2.2) due mostly to a big increase in minutes.

IMO:
1)  Maybe you all were right in rationalizing/rushing-to-judgement that
CB will never develop into an effective NBA point guard. (Although I’ve
no doubt he’s a genuine clutch ball player.)
2)  1997 NBA may be remembered as both the thinnest and weakest draft in
a decade. IMO, Tim Duncan, Van Horn, Brevin Knight, Mercer and Derek
Anderson would get spanked off the court by the 1996 lottery picks
(Shareef, Ray Allen, Antoine, Kobe, Iverson, Marbury, Kittles, Camby
etc). Adding insult to injury, I’ll bet the average age of the 1996
lottery class is younger.


Have a nice weekend everyone,


JoeHironaka

P.S.     It crushes my heart to see Rick Pitino’s Celtics fold like 12
girlie-men down the stretch.  I’m nearly willing to agree with whoever
of you said we should put Kenny Anderson on I.R. and start collecting
extra lottery ping pong balls for the (promising) 1998 draft. But I’m
still praying hard for an 8 to 10 game winning streak to close out the
season.

P.P.S.    It’s moot now, but I’m surprised we didn’t recognise four
years ago that ex-Celt-alum Dave Cowens would have made a heck of a
better choice for head coach than M.L. Carr.  At least we will have
Coach Cowens and Coach Bird to root for in the playoffs.

Somebody, please "Beat LA !!"

****