RE: Endorsement of Frontcourt

["Ken Mattina" <mattinak@teleport.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From:	owner-celtics@igtc.com [mailto:owner-celtics@igtc.com] On Behalf Of
Noah Evans
Sent:	Tuesday, August 31, 1999 9:57 AM
To:	celtics list
Subject:	Endorsement of Frontcourt

I
	Having seen Fortson play in college, and a bit in the pros I have to think
that we robbed Denver blind. If Fortson reminds me of anyone, he reminds me
of a younger, quicker Oakley. After watching Oakley's career, I think most
of us would trade Mercer in a second for Oakley 10 years younger. Other than
his ability to rebound, Fortson's offensive abilities are not to be
discounted. In college Fortson was actually more of a scorer than a
rebounder(didn't alex mention this?). He has a remarkable talent for sealing
his man off for easy layups, and open shots around the basket. While he
might not get those sorts of shots against the other giants of the
league(Karl Malone, Oakley, Mason etc...), he can still maul the thinner
power forwards(Camby, Joe Smith, Theo Ratiliff etc...). IIRC he can hit at
about 15 feet too(that was one of the questions about his game coming into
the league). Coupled with Pot's above average post up game, no-one can cheat
off any celtics player now. Especially in the post.

Would you say that he has Oakley's leadership qualities?

	As for Pot's I think he's pretty much a known commodity. He's strong, works
hard, is durable, has bad hands and the aforementioned post game. Not a bad
combo considering the dearth of centers these days. Especially considering
that we don't have to double down low any more, which means that our primary
weakness last year, wide open layups, won't be a problem anymore. Andre
Miller or not, Pot was a good addition to the celts.

Agreed.

	As for Walker, I'm ecstatic that's he's back to playing small forward. It's
funny watching Walker's struggles last year playing pf, and seeing him
dominate sf's the year before. Remember how he ate Camby and Garnett alive?
Imagine Walker posting up the sieves that play small forward? Imagine Walker
being defended by Mashburn. Or Glenn Robinson. Or Latrell Sprewell. I think
Walker will eat other teams alive next year, even if he shows up at 300lbs.
Just because opposing teams won't be able to deal with him. What else would
they do. They certainly couldn't move a pf off Fortson. That would be even
worse. Fortson eats weaker players alive. I'm salivating at the thought.

If Pete Axthelm were still alive, he would put it this way:  Antoine Walker
plays like Cazzie Russell-
He keeps both teams in the game.  :)

	Rebounding is another thing I'm drooling over. We three players who can
average 10+ rebounds a game, and one(pierce) that can average another 7.
That combination reminds me a lot of the Jordan era bulls(in only that
respect, thank goodness). As much as I disliked them, the bulls won games on
the offensive and defensive board. This year it doesn't matter if Walker
shoots <40%, because there's always another player to grab the offensive
rebound. And teams that shoot a low percentage(the nuggets, Miami, New York)
won't have nearly the chance they did against us before, since they can't
rely on offensive rebounds to make up for their offensive inefficiency. It's
a wonderful cushion that we didn't have before Fortson.

For the most part, I agree with this assesment.  The thought of AW launching
up even more
Three pointers, however, makes me cringe.


	This is beyond the scope of just the frontcourt, but does anyone else think
we have one of the strongest starting linups in the league now? Other than
anderson, at every position we have a player that is 10-20lbs about the
league average for his position. And it's not like we have any fat
players(walker is/was hardly fat, maybe a little pudgy) in our starting
lineup. It's comforting after last year, when our players were posted up
with impunity. This year we'll be doing the posting up.

We have better players.  Hope we have a better team.

Looking forward to next season

Me too!


Noah

Great post, Noah (Andy).  Good to hear from you again.

Ken