Re: sorry about that.

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

>From: opi@unesco.org

>Lately I know I may have sounded like president of the Internet fellowship 
>of the miserables in my rants about Toine, but the reason is that I took it 
>as a matter of faith that Antoine would get 9+ rebounds per game no matter 
>where he lined up on the basketball court (and that this underappreciated 
>ability is what easily made up for his many lapses in judgement etc). But I 
>was very gravely mistaken.
>
>I guess Antoine is having a slightly better year than Vin Baker did last 
>year, simply because he's probably a better rounded player. But Vin Baker 
>had years of 20-10 stats culminating in making the Dream Team before last 
>year's debacle. Antoine right now is just another player with a flawed 
>resumé. He was blessed with one All Star statistical season on his contract 
>renewal year, but presently ranks somewhere in the bottom half of starting 
>NBA power forwards or small forwards.

Joe,

Have you been able to see any of the games yet this year?  I only ask 
because your observations are often very objective and based on impressions 
gleaned from analyzing game tapes (e.g. the way Antoine pounds the ball into 
the floor on his dribble), whereas this season they have tended to be almost 
exclusively subjective ones based on statistical analysis. I certainly don't 
mean to suggest that people who can't watch the games have nothing to 
contribute to the list, but I think there's a danger that one can fall into 
assumptions if all there is to look at is a box score.

Now, I do think that Antoine is off to a slow start this year.  I don't, 
however, think that he's doing as badly as a lot of people are making out.  
After all, he's still a big part of the team, and they are winning half 
their games, and looking like they are close to being a lot better than 
that.  If you ask me, Antoine has been told to do a lot more things that are 
not going to show up in his stats.  Everyone has been praising this team 
because it is playing so much more like a team, but they don't seem to 
appreciate that the biggest change in that department is that Antoine is now 
required to do the little things that everyone else does, instead of just 
saving his energy to "create his own offense".  He must rotate on defense, 
just like everyone else, set picks, box out, all that.  Do I feel sorry for 
him, or think that he should be exempt from such things?  Of course not, but 
the truth is that in previous years, he was given free reign to do whatever 
needed to be done so that he would be able to put some points on the board 
(hey, someone needed to).  Now the points are coming from a more balanced 
offense, where individual moves are frowned on, and that's his thing.  
Antoine is finding out he's not the kind of shooter that you run plays to 
get 18 footers for.  If you can't get him a layup, the next best thing is a 
three pointer.  Does any of this explain why he's rebounding less?  Not 
exactly, although I think all his stats are affected by the fact that he's 
doing what he's told to do whether it shows up in stats or not.  He's not 
resting on defense, to use his energy on offense.  He's not leaving his man 
unguarded to head to the boards early.  He's playing fewer minutes and 
taking fewer shots (which means fewer offensive rebounds for him), and not 
complaining about it.  In short, he's doing what the coach asks, ignoring 
his personal statistics, and getting crucified for it.

Jim

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