Re: Celtics rotation

[Dan Forant Sr <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>]

This thinking has solid reasoning from what I can see, lot's of depth with
players able to play other positions. It has to be a coaches dream. Now all
Pitino has to do is make it happen. Is he up to the task of recognizing
situations? I wasn't crazy about some of his coaching last season.

At 10:10 PM 8/5/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Let me assume for the moment that the Celtics are done tweaking their roster
>until at least the trading deadline, which is what I believe. Here is what
>I see:
>
>Starting lineup: Potapenko, Fortson, Walker, Pierce, Anderson.
>Rotation players: Battie, McCarty, Williams, Cheaney, Barros.
>End of bench/IR: Turner, Griffin, Washington, Minor, Ellison.
>
>1) The Celtics have stockpiled talent: every player on the first or second
>unit was drafted in the first round; most were lottery picks. The Celtics 
>will develop this talent and eventually attempt to trade their depth for 
>All-Star quality, as Portland managed to do with the acquisition of Steve 
>Smith.
>
>2) As people have noted, depth at center is limited. A few years ago, when
>the Bulls were dominating with 6'6" Rodman often playing center, the need
>to have a lot of traditional centers didn't seem to concern many people. 
>The Twin Towers have changed that I suppose; but honestly, I don't see it
>being a serious problem until the Celtics meet San Antonio in the finals. 
>New York did pretty well with only Dudley as a center after Ewing went down.
>
>3) Pat Riley said that he felt the future lineup of the NBA is five 6'9"
>guys who do it all. The Celtics lineup, with so many two position players,
>seems to be a step in that direction. The rotation is probably going to
>work like this: Anderson and Barros split 48 minutes. The remaining 192
>minutes are going to be split between the rest; the exact positions are
>flexible. Out of these players:
>  Walker and Pierce are going to play 35+ minutes each. In fact, these 
>    numbers may drop if the season is going well.  
>  Forston, Potapenko, and Battie will play around 25-30 minutes each, unless
>    they are limited by foul trouble. 
>  McCarty, Williams, and Cheaney will divide the remaining minutes, probably
>    around 10-20 minutes each.
>
>4) With respect to positions: We're going to see Walker and McCarty (on a 
>pressing unit) both play some minutes at power forward. Cheaney will 
>probably play both shooting guard exclusively; when he and Pierce are 
>playing together, Pierce will move to small forward because of his superior 
>strength, rebounding, and ability to drive. Having multi-position players
>will help the trapping defense; we should see fewer horrible matchups 
>after rotations, with the exception of Anderson and Barros. The Celtics
>trapping system (next bigger player rotates) is meant to prevent our 
>point guards from being exploited easily.
>
>5) There is a nice scoring balance between the first and second unit now.
>Pierce and Walker are each going to be counted on for around 20 ppg for
>the first unit while Potapenko will hopefully draw some double teams when
>he posts up. On the second unit, there are no offensive liabilities like
>we frequently had last year (Riley, Bowen). A single offensive liability
>allows the opposing team to cheat and double team (Greg Ostertag, Chris
>Dudley). This team will not suffer that fate.
>
>6) The five guys at the end of the bench/IR as well as Barros all have
>contracts ending in 2000 or 2001. Look for them to be replaced by three
>first round draft picks and two more $2M exception players over the next
>two offseasons, unless the Celtics make a many for one trade to open up 
>roster spots. I feel that a trade of this sort is probably quite likely
>during the next offseason. Some All-Star will become disgruntled and the 
>Celtics will offer two well-performing rotation players and two future
>first round draft picks to acquire him.
>
>7) Predictions: The Celtics beat Larry Bird's Pacers for the first team
>this season. They finish fourth in the East behind Miami, Indiana, and
>New York and win at least one playoff series.
>
>Alex
>
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