Team Philosophy

[Warwick <giants@eisa.net.au>]

Hey all,

Heres a run down of what we should be aiming to get out of each position
imho - some may sound incredibly obvious but its what I think we need to
be aiming for with this team.

Center.

We need to have two players capable of playing 24-30 solid minutes each
depending on the matchups and a third player to help out if required.
Eric Riley (who I think can play both 4 and 5) is a superb third option
for this team.

For this to work we need to have two different types of second on our
first and second unit.

1) The solid big well built type who can bang with the big guys such as
Shaquille O'Neal and not get completely disgraced.

At the moment our best version of this type of player is quite probably
Vitaly Potapenko and at 6'10" I honestly believe that he is an inch or
two too short to be this type of player, he does however have the bulk
to fill this position, for now, but may be best suited at the four spot.
I haven't seen enough of him to know whether or not he is fast enough to
fill in as our second need at center.

Future watch: If Ben Pepper can develop and add another 10-15 pounds of
weight onto his body he may be the future player who can play this role.
It is currently his job at the Victoria Titans to play this role.

News on Pepper - The Titans play game 1 on Friday night (aussie time) in
the Grand Final series against the reigning champions, the Adelaide
36ers. Pepper came up huge grabbing about 5 rebounds in the last few
minutes in game 2 of the sweep against the Melbourne Tigers in the semis
in the crunch time.

Players capable of playing this role for the Celtics that may be
available

Matt Geiger - Philadelphia 76ers
Ervin Johnson - Milwaukee Bucks
Stanley Roberts - Houston Rockets [if healthy]
Dean Garrett - Minnesota Timberwolves
Will Perdue - San Antonio Spurs
Bryant Reeves - Vancouver
Luc Longley - Phoenix

Very slim pickings indeed.
 

2) An athletic athlete who can run up and down the court for half a
game, grab some rebounds, block some shots and be at the end of a
fastbreak to slam one down. He would also tire out the bigger center
after the (1) type center has banged him around for the first half of
each quarter.

For this type of center I feel that we have successfully found exactly
what we need in Tony Battie. If Tony can add another 10 pounds of
strength onto his body without losing too much of his athleticism then
he would be the perfect second unit center, power forward for this team.

Time split

Starting Center: The big bodied player - 24 minutes

1st quarter: opening 6 minutes (no matter the type of center)
2nd quarter: middle 6 minutes (see above)
3rd quarter: middle 6 minutes (see above)
4th quarter: final 6 minutes (if playing against a Shaq type center or
if not playing that sort or not in form then the opening 6 minutes of
the quarter)

Obviously the 3rd stringer plays fill in minutes for either of them
incase of foul trouble

Power Forward

If Pitino plans to make Antoine Walker our starting small forward then
we need three players capable of playing minutes at this position.

(1) A quality rebounder, defensive (body on body) defender, someone
whose not scared to take a charge from the big guys and someone who can
score when required.

When you have a starting lineup featuring Antoine Walker (20-25ppg),
Paul Pierce (hopefully 15-20ppg) and 3 quality role players (including
the power forward at 7-10ppg) then you're getting at least 66 points per
game from your starters.

You dont need another flat out offensive player at this position because
of the amount of scoring that you'll already have in the starting
lineup. At the same time you dont want a stiff of an offensive player at
the position that allows the other big forward to double over onto
Antoine Walker whenever he (the (1) power forward) is on the court.

I believe that this position is what Popeye Jones was brought into
accomplish. At his best he is capable of averaging 4 offensive rebounds
per game (over a season) 30 minutes per game.

If he isn't capable of fulfilling that role then he becomes trade bait
and the ideal player for this position may be already on our team
playing out of position in Vitaly Potapenko. VP's only downside to
playing at this position may be a lack of footspeed, but playing 24-30
minutes per game may see him play his best basketball at this position.

If not there are certainly some capable players in the NBA at this point
in their careers that can make a valuable contribution in this style of
game for the Celtics. These players would be -

Clarence Weatherspoon - Miami Heat
Kurt Thomas - New York
Bo Outlaw - Orlando
Theo Ratliff - Philadelphia
Ben Wallace - Washington
Anthony Mason - Charlotte
J.R. Reid - LA Lakers
Jerome Williams - Detroit
Antonio Davis - Indiana
Charles Oakley - Toronto
Gary Trent - Dallas
Samaki Walker - Dallas
Othella Harrington - Houston
Michael Smith - Vancouver
Lorenzen Wright - LA Clippers
Lawrence Funderburke - Sacramento Kings

(Backups)

We can slot Antoine Walker in here for a few minutes if we want the big
three on the court all at the same time, but after this season, I dont
see how how long it will be (if ever) that Ron Mercer and Paul Pierce
can co-exist on the same court at the same time. The problem is that
they both play a very similar brand of basketball and both of them have
the mature calmness that is required to be steady leaders. They are one
and the same and I believe that Paul has more talent than Ron and a
large part of the reason is that he can hit the outside shot
consistently well whereas much has been talked about Ron and his lack of
a three point shot.

As far as the backup power forward position comes along, I can see this
position belonging to Walter McCarty for the next decade. His hustle
will become a major asset to the Celtics once he regains his full health
and ability.

You may also see Tony Battie play some backup minutes here when the
third center gets a run in a 'big' but fast lineup.

Starter Minutes = 26-30 minutes per game (not considering foul trouble)

SMALL FORWARD

This will become Antoine's position. A 6'9" forward with the complete
package is a rare comodity and when you factor in his reportedly huge
desire to win is exactly what the Celtics have needed since Bird
retired.

Entering his fourth NBA season and a need to prove his contract will see
Walker play 32 to 38 minutes at this position. However, the Celtics will
need to have some sort of backup  at this position and that will come in
the form of Bruce Bowen and Ron Mercer playing the remainder of his
minutes here.

Antoine Walker's minutes usage - 38

SHOOTING GUARD

Again this is the foundation of the Celtics lineup. With Paul Pierce and
Ron Mercer splitting the minutes at the position. Bruce Bowen will play
any minutes that are left here incase of injury or foul trouble to
either Pierce or Mercer.

POINT GUARD
 

This position in all reality is where the Celtics problems lie. They
have two of the better offensive (and yes by that I mean scoring) point
guards in the league in Kenny Anderson and Dana Barros.

However, the problem lies in that the ideal point guard in a Rick Pitino
system is not a scoring point guard, however more of the classical type
of point guard wherein he is the teams greatest role player.

We need more of a defensive player, someone who can defend from 15' and
out, block the passing lanes and generally run the press for 30-35
minutes per night at a consistently high level.

However much I would love to have a guy such as Gary Payton on our team,
we don't need a star point guard.

If you look at the great duos of the past and present in the NBA you'll
find that often the best point guards in the league were more of a
greatest role player than the actual teams star. Sure they may have been
a go-to guy in clutch but they weren't the absolute star. A few examples
of this.

Present era - Karl Malone and John Stockton.
Past eras - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, Bird and Johnson and
perhaps the greatest duo of All-Time, Bill Russell and Bob Cousy.

Now, I dont see how Kenny Anderson will ever be considered in such a
breath as those, but I can certainly see Antoine Walker being one of
them.

Interesting to note that each of the great duos also had solid players
surrounding them - the Lakers of course had James Worthy, the Celts had
Parish and McHale and the great Celts teams had a myriad of talented
players supporting them.

We have a number of options that we can choose to take up on Kenny.

A) Keep him around and hope for the best.. Low percentage option.

B) Offer a package of Kenny Anderson, Greg Minor (or Pervis Ellison) and
next years #1 pick to the Phildelphia 76ers inexchange for Matt Geiger
(who fills our need as a starting center superbly) and Eric Snow (great
defensive point guard having a career year in Philadelphia).

C) Offer the same package to the LA Clippers and hope to get Lorenzen
Wright and their #1 pick and hope to land one of the top 2 point guards
in the draft...

I believe that both of the trade proposals are realistic options. With
the 76ers acquiring Tyrone Hill to become their starting power forward
and switching Theo Ratliff back to center I believe is an admittance
that the signing of Matt Geiger has become a failed experiment and they
may be best suited to trade him for the best offer that they can get.

With Allen Iverson becoming their full time shooting guard this gives
the Celtics the perfect opportunity to dump them with Kenny Anderson who
may infact be best suited on a team where his scoring may become the
foil to elevate Iverson to the leagues most valuable player. When
thinking about it, Eric Snow is not the type of player that commands
coverage on defense, yet Anderson clearly is. This move forces the
opposition to move their small forward (who would be in all honesty much
slower than Iverson on many occassions) onto Iverson. If however, the
opposition decided to double down on him with their point guard, they'd
have Anderson there to create a shot for himself.

The addition of Greg Minor may offset some of the impact that they will
get with the expected loss of George Lynch.. Had the 76ers had complete
hindsight and signed Lynch to a multi-year deal they would not have been
under as much pressure as they will be. He signed a one-year minimum
salary deal (according to Patricia Bender's web site).

The #1 draft pick is the final sweetener for the Sixers. Worst case
scenario would have the pick as a 5 to 10 pick with the best scenario
being a middle of the pack pick (15 to 20).

I feel that the Sixers would accept this deal.

As for the Clippers deal keep in mind that they are the Clippers and are
renouned for making such decisions which finish up being bad deals for
them. They have lost numerous amounts of games this season soley based
on the fact that they have no veterans around the team and with Anderson
still with that 'name' player and being under contract for a while he is
the ideal player for the Clippers.

Lorenzen Wright has been referred to often on this list as a player that
would seem likely to fit into the Celtics style of playing. He would be
a superb fit at the starting power forward position while this would
mean that Potapenko is either available for trade or is our starting
center in this lineup.

With the losses of Loy Vaught and Ike Austin for nothing fresh in the
minds of the Clippers management I believe this would be a deal that
they would bite the bullet on straight away and such is a good back up
plan if the Philadelphia trade doesn't work out the way I hope it would.

THE BIG THREE

So many questions surround our big three, but the biggest question may
infact be "Can they play together on the one court at the same time?".
If they can then we're set up for a bright future but if they cant then
the following questions loom "Which one of them offers the least in
terms of making this ball club win in the future and what do we want for
him?"

Well to answer the first question that would be to look into a crystal
ball and ponder the following question, "If they can all play on the
same court at the same time then why does Rick Pitino intend to make
Antoine Walker our full time starting small forward when he already has
Paul Pierce and Ron Mercer (the other two thirds of the big three) as
swingmen?"

This could be as many have suggested and that either Ron Mercer or Paul
Pierce could very well be the star sixth men that have found in Celtics
history.

Another reason and something with just as much evidence is that either
Mercer or Pierce is on their way out of the Celtics organisation which
names Antoine Walker as the most valuable of the three so it leaves a
comparison between Pierce and Mercer as the player who would seem the
most likely to stay in team green.

If it came down to it, then I'm sorry to say (to Mercer fans on this
list, eg. Dorine), but Pierce's all-round game at this point of his
career beats out Ron Mercer's so thats who I'm tipping stays in team
Green as the full time shooting guard.

If we can get either of the deals with Kenny Anderson then it gives a
completely different look to the Celtics roster.

With the Philadelphia deal

Center - Matt Geiger - Tony Battie - Eric Riley
Power Forward - Vitaly Potapenko - Walter McCarty - Popeye Jones
Small Forward - Antoine Walker - Bruce Bowen
Shooting Guard - Paul Pierce - Ron Mercer
Point Guard - Eric Snow - Dana Barros - Kentucky #2 pick (that point
guard)

With the Los Angeles Clippers deal

Center - Vitaly Potapenko - Tony Battie - Eric Riley
Power Forward - Lorenzen Wright - Walter McCarty - Popeye Jones
Small Forward - Antoine Walker - Bruce Bowen
Shooting Guard - Paul Pierce - Ron Mercer
Point Guard - Steve Francis - Dana Barros

Taking the Philadelphia deal into perspective and considering a future
Ron Mercer trade it looks as though our best option may be to trade
Mercer to a team in the West Coast. If we were to do just that and trade
him to a Western Conference team we would have a couple of options to
follow up on here.

A) Trade Mercer with Popeye Jones to a team that is likely to have one
of the top few picks in the draft where we can attempt to draft Elton
Brand or Lamar Odom to become our starting power forward.

There is of course the Clippers who may have the #1 draft pick where we
may be able to deal them Ron Mercer, Popeye Jones and Bruce Bowen for
their draft pick, Eric Piatkowski and a re-signed Rodney Rogers.

There is two other options and trading him in a package for another
player and a package.

If that is the case then I propose the following trades.

Trade Option #1 - Ron Mercer, Popeye Jones and Pervis Ellison (if not
waived) to the Seattle Sonics for Vin Baker and Hersey Hawkins

or

Trade Option #2 - Ron Mercer, Popeye Jones and Pervis Ellison to the Los
Angeles Clippers for a re-signed Lorenzen Wright, Eric Piatkowski and a
re-signed Rodney Rogers which would mean that the Clippers get something
for two players that they would likely end up with nothing to show of.

All three of the above deals would solve the Celts needs of a starting
power forward, but are they a true reflection of the talent that is Ron
Mercer?

The lineups after each of those three deals would look like this

Clippers trade #1

Center - Matt Geiger - Tony Battie - Eric Riley
Forward - Elton Brand - Vitaly Potapenko - Walter McCarty
Forward - Antoine Walker - Rodney Rogers
Guard - Paul Pierce - Eric Piatkowski
Guard - Eric Snow - Dana Barros - Kentucky #2 pick (that point guard)

Seattle deal

Center - Matt Geiger - Tony Battie - Eric Riley
Power Forward - Vin Baker - Walter McCarty - Popeye Jones
Small Forward - Antoine Walker - Bruce Bowen
Shooting Guard - Paul Pierce - Hersey Hawkins
Point Guard - Eric Snow - Dana Barros - Kentucky #2 pick (that point
guard)

Clippers deal #2

Center - Matt Geiger - Tony Battie - Vitaly Potapenko
Power Forward - Lorenzen Wright - Walter McCarty
Small Forward - Antoine Walker - Rodney Rogers
Shooting Guard - Paul Pierce - Eric Piatkowski - Bruce Bowen
Point Guard - Eric Snow - Dana Barros - Kentucky #2 pick (that point
guard)

With each of those three deals I can now see a stacked front court each
player with a load of talent. Our main problem may now be at the point
guard position, but I'm more than willing to have Eric Snow over Kenny
Anderson.

Considering that we may have to go with the Clippers deal I see the
target becoming a near All-Star center being the target for the Celtics
to try and get.

With that in mind we have to take a look at the teams that may have a
center to trade that also require a future star at two guard and a
quality front court rebounder in Popeye Jones and let me tell you that
there are not that many options available for the Celts and I'm pretty
sure that RP has gone over this many times to try and find gold.

About the only team that I can find that may have some sort of use for 
Mercer is a team like the Sixers or the Clippers and aside from Matt
Geiger the Sixers dont have anything of interest and I'm not about to
trade Mercer simply so we can get someone at center.

Assuming we get the Clippers trade I'd like to hold onto Ron and see
what happens.

I'm of the belief that the most likely deal would be the latter Clippers
trade so expect that to happen and for the Celts to come to camp looking
packed in the front court and not so packed in the back court.

I really dont know what else there is for me to write about, but yeah.. 
there you have it.

Warwick