Re: Major Problems

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

Hart wrote:

> (cut) My starting team for the rest of the year would be:
>                 C: Vitaly
>                 PF: Battie      SF:Walker
>                 PG: KA          SG: Mercer
>                 6th man: Pierce

****


Hi there Hart:

I also agree with you regarding the return of a marquee Celtics 6th man, as
well as moving Battie back to his natural power forward position as a
"stahter".

Two points I'd make, though.

First, this won't happen unless Pitino develops trust in Riley (who seems
deep in the doggie house) or Shi-tzu, and/or that he gives a lot more
minutes to Battleship Potapenko.

Second,  at least for the remainder of this season, Pitino will need to put
Ron Mercer, not Pierce, on the bench unit, because Pierce (among others) has
had insufficient time to study the press.

I don't think it would be easy "benching" a young guy in his contract
extension year (Ron Mercer).  Maybe that's why Pitino has taken a wait until
next year approach instead of experimenting with the starting lineup, as he
claimed he would do a week ago. Next year, I would not mind seeing Paul
Pierce (or Mercer) play a "Hondo" role for the team.

Joe


RE: Josh Ozersky, hey you are just as likely right about Mercer's upside as
me, Alex or anyone else. Our dream should be that he will be the second
coming of Reggie Lewis, since Reggie was a perfect example of a hugely
valuable but statistically "one dimensional" scorer. I just object to a view
(not at all your view, BTW, but you know who I'm talking about) that Antoine
Walker is basically disposable/replaceable because Ron Mercer is empirically
a far superior athlete (read: he can jump) compared to Toine and ergo he has
unlimited All Star "potential" in this league.  Antoine is a much greater
BASKETBALL talent than Ron Mercer (Duh). We're talking about literally the
only kid in the NBA born with the very raw skill sets of both Karl Malone
(rebounding) AND Scott Pippen (passing, one-on-one), the two greatest
forwards of the 1990s. I admit Antoine Walker will probably remain an
incomplete & flawed player for another 5 long years or so (he'll be 27 years
old then), but the critical part of the equation is that Walker is
unnaturally hyper-competitive. That's why these stupid "Derrick Coleman"
analogies are bogus. It's a totally false analogy, IMHO. Antoine Walker is
not a "risk". No way, José. He is a Boston Celtic for seven more years, and
I for one appreciate that fact.