RP show

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Notes from today's RP show:

1) They start with Walker and the booing, and Walker's comments that he 
might not be the right guy for the Celtics. Pitino says that they won't
pay any attention to that now. After the season they'll take a look at
the situation. Lobel asks a hypothetical question of what would happen
if Antoine demanded a trade. Pitino says that any move has to benefit
the Celtics first by getting them equal value.

This worries me a bit that Pitino doesn't just say, "Antoine isn't going
anywhere."

2) Pitino feels the fan's booing is unfair. He mentions that there are
other players whose shot selection is worse than Antoine's recently, and
they get no boos.

3) Pitino says the three toughest things to teach a young player are
transition defense, offensive rebounding, and shot selection. 

4) They did a small piece on Barros.

5) In the Coaches' Clinic, Pitino goes over shot selection. Any 3-pointer
taken with a lot of time left is a bad one, unless it's Barros shooting
an open one (which is a 40%+ shot). Any challenged shot with over five
seconds on the shot clock is bad. He wants them to play more inside-out.
He says that a challenged shot in general is about a 25% shot.

He shows some examples from the Cavs game. He shows the Celtics making
extra passes to get open shots and grades them as good shot selection 
regardless of whether they go in. He says that the job of an offensive
player is to go around the defender rather than over, unless you are
dunking on them. Potapenko misses a tough shot over a defender which is
a bad shot. 

He also shows Ron shooting a challenged shot off a screen and says it 
is a bad shot, even though Ron can make it sometimes. He contrasts 
with another time when he dumps it off instead. If this is really the
case, I'd say Pitino has to be pretty unhappy with Mercer's shot 
selection because he shoots a lot of these challenged shots off screens
(and it shows in his shooting percentage).

6) Pitino talks about wanting the season to end and having time to
improve his young players. Again he says that moves are possible.

Alex