Peter May Castrates Pitino & The Celtics

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Boy, he's in a bitchy mood....


      Boston Celtics
      Team Report posted AUGUST 21, 1999      

      By TSN correspondent
      Peter May
      Boston Globe
      The Celtics were in vacation mode this past week, which was a very good 
      thing because it meant that Rick Pitino would stay on the golf course and 
      away from the telephone. After delivering yet another wrecking ball to a 
      team in dire need of stability, the last thing the Celtics needed was 
      another deal courtesy of its deal-maker/coach. 
      The Ron Mercer trade is three weeks old and looks even worse as the days 
      go by for one main reason: It didn't have to happen unless Pitino wanted 
      it to. Maybe he did -- he says otherwise -- but that doesn't matter. 
      Mercer had been seen as one of the team's "big three," along with Antoine 
      Walker and Paul Pierce. When Pitino made his one decent trade since coming 
      to Boston -- the acquisition of Vitaly Potapenko -- he added that it was 
      an even better deal in his eyes because he didn't have to break up the big 
      three. Now he has done it and for what? Money? Please. Does one or two 
      bargaining sessions count as an impasse? If that was the case, we'd still 
      be in a lockout. Come to think of it. . . . 
      Money was a very convenient excuse. Pitino talks about sticking to a 
      budget which he has exceeded by quite a bit already. He used that as a 
      reason he couldn't sign Mercer. In a vacuum, maybe that sticks. But over 
      time, he overspent for Travis Knight, Walker, Walter McCarty and Chris 
      Mills, creating the so-called "budget problem" that he has now. He lauded 
      his acquisition of Kenny Anderson because Anderson's contract was set in 
      stone. Yeah, millstone. He couldn't move Anderson with a bulldozer. 
      And what is going to happen when Tony Battie steps up to the plate? Or 
      Danny Fortson? Or Pierce? Are they going to be traded because they want 
      too much, too? 
      The trade also adds even more uncertainty and instability to a team in 
      desperate need of neither. With Mercer gone, there's a strong likelihood 
      that only one player -- the aforementioned Anderson -- will be starting in 
      the same position. Walker may shift to small forward, which in theory 
      sounds great except for one thing: he can't guard his shadow. 
      Someone else will play the power forward spot -- Battie, Fortson? And 
      Potapenko will start with a clean slate at center. Pierce presumably would 
      be the shooting guard, which is not the easiest transition for a small 
      forward. Just ask Kobe Bryant. 
      If Pitino keeps everyone where they are, then that means the terminally 
      underachieving Calbert Cheaney may start at shooting guard. But that means 
      the Denver boys will be coming off the bench at the expense of a classic 
      two guard who was coming into his own. At least Cheaney is used to an 
      in-your-face coach, having endured Bobby Knight for four years. 
      The urge to tinker, tinker and bomb was seen from the start as a potential 
      Pitino liability. It has proven to be accurate to the core. He has blown 
      up two teams already and is a lock to do something at the trading 
      deadline. 
      At the end of last season, even Walker pleaded for continuity, to give the 
      team time to grow, develop and see what happens. Pitino saw to it that 
      this year, like the last two, will be another case of putting new players 
      in unfamiliar roles and trying to get them to blend and mesh with the 
      playoffs-or-bust mantra hanging over them like a sword of Damocles. Sounds 
      like just the right atmosphere for a swimming season. 
      PLAYER PROFILE 
      New acquisition Eric Williams, of course, once was traded by Pitino, who 
      said, flat out, "Eric Williams could never play for me." 
      Well, apparently Williams has seen the light, which generally happens to 
      players when they get traded. While Williams has been a dedicated weight 
      room guy since leaving Boston, less clear is what he has left in his game 
      (and he's got a long contract which the Nuggets were only too happy to 
      unload.) 
      He had a quick first-step before blowing out his knee and he also got to 
      the foul line quite a bit. Defensively, he was solid. It'll be interesting 
      to see how two unproductive years in Denver affected not only his body, 
      but his mind and his game. 
      WHAT'S NEXT 
      The Celtics still have 15 players under contract, but one can probably 
      identify the 12 lucky ones. Greg Minor and Pervis Ellison both are likely 
      to be injured for awhile. Minor may miss the season after a freak hip 
      injury late last season. 
      A third injured player would be easy to find. Left unsaid is what the team 
      plans to do with its own free agents. Bruce Bowen, a onetime Pitino 
      favorite, probably has lost out to new signee Adrian Griffin. Center Eric 
      Riley also is out there with apparently not a lot of people banging the 
      door down. Potapenko and Battie constitute what passes for the pivot right 
      now (with Ellison and possibly Fortson available to play there as well. 


     
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