Re: this team sucks/but will change

[Sherry & Hart <hartleyo@ix.netcom.com>]

Hi Peter,

The minutes played are just an estimated guess and probably would be
decided by individual game scenarios and/or who has the hot hand. I
remember with the Celtic teams of the 80"s that other than Bird who
always got his 40 + minutes that the McHale, Parish, Ainge and even DJ
would usually average at the most 35 minutes a game. I hope that ego
would take a back seat to winning and this would come with maturity.  

The crunch time players would in most cases always be your best players
and IMO would be Vitaly, Walker/Pierce and KA/Mercer, But this would be
good situation to have. If your looking for defense then maybe Oakley or
a Healthy Popeye would be in for a mercer with Pierce going over to
shooting guard. By the way for what ever it is worth I think Pierce is
the more complete player than Mercer. I think starting is given too much
importance, if I was a good player I would rather be in the game at the
end. As an example, I remember in the 70's Steve Kuberski started over
Paul Silas and we won a championship. 

I agree with you on Bowen, he is defense minded and doesn't care about
his points.

Regards,
Hart 

peter delevett wrote:
> 
> Hm. Initially I questioned whether Pierce would cotton to coming off the
> bench, but I see in your scenario that he would end up with 30 mpg, same as
> Mercer. Still, I wonder if that would be enough to satisfy both egos; for that
> matter, Antoine would probably want to playat least 40 minutes. Another tough
> question: who do you have on the floor at crunch time? It would depend
> somewhat on the game, situation and opponent, but the majority of the time I
> would think you'd have to have Walker, Mercer and Pierce all on the floor,
> plus the point guard (Kenny). No? Then you'd have to choose between having
> Vitaly or one of the PFs (Popeye/Oakley, in this probably-wishful scenario) as
> the fifth man on the floor.
> 
> I could deal with the Minor/McCarty/Riley tanding playing mop-up or in the
> pressing unit, though like you I wouldn't mind seeing Minor and his salary get
> traded and keeping Bowen in that slot.
> 
> Sherry & Hart wrote:
> >
> > Hi Peter
> >
> > The way I see it and for arguments sake, say that Popeye recovers, and
> > we sign an Oakley.
> >
> > Starting team:  C: Vitaly  PF: Oakley  SF: Walker  PG: KA    SG:Mercer
> > Off the bench:  C/SF/PF: Battie (I really like this kid-multi
> > positional player)
> >                 SF/SG: Pierce (Would be great taking smaller forwards
> > and guards to the basket or posting them up)
> >                 PG/SG: Barros (Unless someone better is available)
> >                 PF: Popeye (IF healthy)
> > This could be one hell of a competetive team both offensively and
> > defensively. You know for sure with Oakley and a healthy Popeye, there
> > will be hard fouls and no lay-ups, it just gives us mental toughness,
> > something we sorely lack.
> >                 Remainder of bench if all things remain status quo: Minor, McCarty and
> > Riley would all play small minutes.
> > Here is how I see the minutes divided up for our 9 man rotation:
> >                         C: Vitaly 30/Battie 18
> >                         PF:Oakley 24/ Popeye 24
> >                         SF:Walker 36/Pierce 12
> >                         PG:KA 36/Barros 12
> >                         SG:Mercer 30/Pierce 18
> 
> > I do believe that Pitino will most likely try to trade Minor somewhere
> > for almost anything if he can. I also think that if he could get a
> > defensive minded point guard for KA, he would do it in a heartbeat. I
> > think that the big 3 are pretty secure and Vitaly is here for the long
> > term. .