enough already

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

Dag.  I think all that absinthe you are drinking over
there on the left bank has put you into an existential
malaise, Joe.  Get with the program!  Miami has less
talent than we do, and they are championship
contenders.  Either Antoine will get better, or he
won't.  If you had watched the games this year, you
would see that he isn't playing poorly, that he is
getting good shots, that he can still take any power
forward in the league, he is still a menace in the
passing lanes, he is passing well, and sooner or later
he will improve in the boards direction.  He's not
Larry Bird or Dave Cowens, but he's not Johnny Newman
either.  Antoine will return to form, and that it is
just a matter of getting his shots to drop.  Screw
that $71 million crap, or the "he should have come
into camp in shape" crap as well.   I will bet anyone
on this list $100 dollars that Antoine's play will
radically improve between now and the all-star break. 
He's already better than he was last year, stats or
not.

--- opi@unesco.org wrote:
> I agree with the judge. It's become so instinctive
> to bash Perv but the situation
> has changed 180° now that his contract is expiring
> and he's healthy enough to be
> a spot starter. If I were Orlando, I probably
> wouldn't give up more than a Derek
> Strong but you never know there could be more to it
> than that (Outlaw & Pervis
> with draft picks for example, not that Orlando needs
> any more picks). In
> retrospect we should have taken Gatling off their
> hands this summer back when he
> was valueless, or even Michael Smith.
> 
> Nice post by Chris Littlefield...hope it doesn't
> hurt his overall GPA. :-) As a
> result of his and Noah's comments, I'll try to stop
> ranting about Antoine. It's
> funny. Two years ago, people could say with a
> straight face that Antoine might
> eventually lead the league in scoring (a la Iverson)
> or rebounding, and more
> importantly that he was one of the few triple-double
> threats left in the
> post-Magic&Bird NBA. But the revisionist historical
> view of Antoine will probably
> describe a young player who put up gaudy stats on a
> truly awful, ugly
> basketball-playing team (just as have so many others
> before him like a young Jim
> Jackson, Ron Harper, Jamaal Mashburn etc). As soon
> as his team finally acquired
> superior talent (like the IBL's immortal 6-5
> journeyman Adrian Griffin), these
> guys easily surpassed him in rebounding and assists,
> leading him to mature and
> realize he was just a limited athlete pretty much
> embarrassing himself by playing
> too far above his head.
> 
> Eventually Antoine may develop into another solid
> veteran piece of the puzzle on
> a good team (as has happened with Jackson, Harper
> and Mashburn) although his
> shooting and turnover stats suggest he'll never be
> quite that valuable. This BTW
> is not at all the way I actually feel,  I just
> wouldn't have the energy to
> dispute it anymore. Personally, I'm still waiting
> for the Rocky theme music to
> start playing. It won't happen any more this year,
> but I still project a greater
> player once Antoine puts it all together. I'm just
> bitter and realistic about the
> fact that Toine clearly is not going to ever be the
> franchise player; MVP
> candidate we need to compete at the championship
> level down the road. It is
> myopic to assume it is possible to contend for
> championships with solid team
> players and a great coach, or that the other talent
> on the Celts may actually be
> good enough to contend (look around the league,
> folks, they emphatically are
> not). If we are lucky enough to trade Antoine for a
> very accomplished veteran
> role player, we will be a fifth to eighth playoff
> seed from now until eternity.
> 
> Joe
> 
> ---------
> 
> Douglas342@aol.com wrote:
> 
> >    I don't claim the expertise you all have, but I
> don't understand this
> > deal.  First, nothing was expected out of Pervis
> this year or ever.  He is
> > giving us some very decent minutes at center and
> we're stuck with his salary
> > this year, when it ends.  Strong is primarily a 4,
> where we have Fortson (he
> > IS recovering from the stress fracture, right?),
> Battie and Walker as needed.
> >  Maybe Strong plus 2d round pick does something.
> Where am I wrong?
> 
> 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Thousands of Stores.  Millions of Products.  All in one place.
Yahoo! Shopping: http://shopping.yahoo.com