Re: The Boston Celtics Mailing List Digest V6 #374

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

"pgoggin@uh.healthbridge.org" wrote:

>         It was mentioned again in today's digest that "Walker better show up in better shape this year."  Does anyone have any tangible evidence to prove to me how "out of shape" 'Toine was last year?  We throw that statement around like Gospel.  I just watched replays of early season victories against both NY and Miami (I wouldn't admit that to just anyone but I know you guys respect and understand such behavior) and even though it was early season when Antoine supposedly wasn't in shape, he looked just fine and had great games in each.  He was a little thicker through the neck and looked to have added some muscle in the off-season but he hustled and ran the floor as well as anyone.  I know you guys watched all the games while I watched just a few so maybe you could enlighten me.

Hi Patrick:

I noticed that Antoine had a slight jelly belly even late in the season. You need to rewind to the 1996 Kentucky-Syracuse game to see just how much weight Antoine has added since turning pro. The thing to remember is that Pitino instructed him to put on that weight  before the nearly canceled season got underway. On his arrival in Boston, he envisioned Toine as a Scottie Pippen type player, after his All Star season he told him to develop a Karl Malone-type physique (a decision probably based on the personnel makeup of our team at that time), and now full circle back to being Pippen again.

My sense is that Antoine has the metabolism to develop an Oakley physique once he physically matures in 4-5 years. That is to say he is the type of person who can get ridiculously huge in the weight room, if that's his objective. This is something Battie and McCarty can't do.

Since you seem to enjoy re-watching game videos as much as I do, I recommend you view a game and focus only on Antoine's defense. The most ridiculous comments I've ever heard about Walker is that he doesn't shown real effort or ability to guard perimeter players. It's rare to see him covering man-to-man out there, but watch for example how he defends inbounds passes or when a guy is looking to lob the ball inside over him.

It's only within the paint that Toine seems to float around in space like a safety, especially just after a shot release or when he's theoretically two passes away from the ball in the trapping system.  Antoine's often the guy who's a split-second late to prevent an incredibly easy basket (that's a general flaw of Pitino's defense), but you do NOT see teams isolate on him twice in a row (trust me, team's occasionally would have done this if they believed he was a poor defender). El Capitano's "revolving door defense" criticism is something that was largely made up by Walker-bashers to help justify our hatred of him. I think none of these people have ever seen him play "revolving door defense". If  you have, please send me that video. I love video.

But as I said before, Antoine will need to be in ideal shape to play effectively over 30 minutes as a small forward. Defending small forwards will force him to play sharp the entire game. He's already prone to occasional brain lock as it is...even when he's well-conditioned.

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