Re: sorry about that.

[ishbak <ishbak@conknet.com>]

On Tue, 07 Dec 1999, you wrote:
> ishbak wrote:

> I think it's good that Griffen and Antoine play off of each other early in the
> season, learning from each others example of level-headed play (Griffen) and total
> scoring confidence and intensity (Antoine). But upon Fortson's return, it makes
> sense to split up our two gifted point forwards in order to strengthen the bench
> chemistry/scoring one way or the other, as well as to get Antoine out of his strange
> funk and make a more impactful non-scoring contribution out there.

That is probably the best proposal, especially given what we have in terms of
talent, but Antoine's ego wouldn't stand for it so we'd have to use Griffen.
It would probably be for the best. But I would love to have Walker come off the
bench. Given the second team's lack of leadership, wouldn't it be nice to have
Antoine's intensity and ball handling where it could do some good? He really
could dominate that way(kind of like the way Gatling dominates other teams
scrubs), the second unit would have to defer to him. And he'd certain be better
than Dana(is anyone but me saddened by Dana's slump? If anyone has paid their
dues it's been Dana, is he still having personal trouble?) or Overton.  

> 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. 

Don't give up on him yet. What it means to me is that he's not a stat padder.
As other people have mentioned, players that play the majority of their time
around the basket will usually get more rebounds than those that hang out on
the perimeter. With the addition of Potapenko and Griffen and Antoine's
relagation to a more outside role, Antoine should be getting less rebounds. I
think we should consider his effort substandard if he doesn't do the little
things like Box out and get back on defense(does he do this by the way? I've
only seen one game this year); not whether or not he puts up good statistics.
If he does what he's supposed to on the court I can tolerate bad rebounding. His
other poor statistics, need work though, which leads me to the questions, does
he come early for games? Does he pay attention to the coaches and work hard? I
think we speculate on his effort given his performance. What I really wonder
though is if Antoine *is* working hard and is still trying to find himself on
the team. 
	Antoine strikes me as a player without confidence. His emotion on the
court is not that Garnett/Jordanesque confident killer instinct as much as the
outbursts of someone trying to prove something to themselves. That's really why
I preach tolerence in Antoine's case. He strikes me as someone who suceeds in
spite of his physical ability, not because of it. He may be quick and strong,
but he's a bit of "tweener"(I detest that word). The overused description of
him is that he's faster than power forwards and stronger than small forwards.
He's not a high jumper, he doesn't have Malone's physique, and he doesn't have
Eric William's first step. And I think it bothers him. That's why I think he
gets frustrated, and throws up all that garbage. That's also why I wish him the
best. Hopefully under Pitino's tuteledge he'll come to understand the
limitations of his game and either correct them or work around them(instead of
jacking up as many shots and dribbling the ball off his foot).

> If Toine is not also capable of nearly that level of board work, then IMO
>his flaws will outweigh his strengths even if his shooting improves a fair
>amount. I feel dumb for having stuck up for Toine all these years, even while
>sensing that more fans this year will warm to Toine simply because their
>definition of progress and maturity is measured by the steadily lower "wpg"
>(wiggle per game) stat and other superficial signs that "he finally gets it".

Would they? With a healthy Fortson would we need Antoine to rebound?
We seem to have a pretty good rebounding team this year. Rebounding, while
necessary to winning, is not the end all of production. If Antoine upped his
shooting percentage, passed, defended and hustled well, would his rebounding
even matter(assuming we had sufficient rebounding otherwise)? If what he does
helps the team win, then it's fine with me. If it doesn't(and he continues to
brick shots and play one and one) then obviously he isn't contributing. But I
don't really care if he rebounds as long as someone else takes up the slack and
Antoine does his other jobs. 

Noah
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