Re: Celts TV announcers

[opi@unesco.org]

Kestutis Kveraga wrote:

> --- You wrote:
> Item #1
> Just a note for those of you who don't get to watch the Cs on the local
> broadcast: Tommy Heinsohn reached an important new milestone in his
> continuing metamorphosis from "corporate cheerleader" to "nattering nabob
> of negativism" during the Clippers loss Sunday night. In his post-game
> wrap-up Tommy H. actually criticized the "vaunted press", both generally
> (along the lines of "how do you let what is essentially a jump shooting
> team get all those chances for dunks and lay-ups?") and with regard to the
> timing of its use ("why press when you're leading by eight points?").
> --- end of quote ---
>
> It's a terrible waste, because we have talent, and because Pitino is not stupid and does know a lot about basketball. Unfortunately, he remains a victim of his success at the college level and the philosophy he associates with it.The Celtics will win some games in spite of him, and will win more to the extent that he recognizes the error of his ways. It gives me hope that in his more lucid moments he sounds like he is starting to recognize this. Perhaps he just needs a gentle, face-saving transition to real NBA coaching.

Pitino is actually adapting - much as Pat Riley has always done - to the needs at hand. In the past, I can't imagine Pitino would have recruited a one-dimensional rebounding specialist like Danny Fortson. Nor did he seem to demonstrate the slightest urgence about finding a center over 230 pounds...he figured he could win at this level with finesse players (Banana Boy) and then bottom-of-the-barrel, minimum-wage solutions (Ringo, then Riley/Shi-tzu).

In many ways, the full-strength Y2K Celtics are now a mirror-image of Heinsohn-era Celtics teams. They feature a pure power forward and a bruising, great locker-room attitude center --both with .500FG% and 14 ppg 10 rpg upsides on many NBA teams but not ours. They also have Swiss Army Knife players like Walker and Griffen, not to mention Paul "Hondo" Pierce.

The question is whether Pitino can coach players who lack the sheer athletic superiority necessary to terrorize opponents on the "monkey outbreak" like he could in the NCAA. By choice, he doesn't have that genre of player anymore (so long, McCarty as an NBA starter/experiment). He has Fortson and Potapenko and Antoine and Anderson instead. These guys won't shed a good light on his system, but they are by no means bad NBA players (all things considered, I'd just as soon have Anderson as Jason Williams).

I've said before that there are probably ten NBA coaches who could coach this Celtics team into the neighborhood of fifty wins and the playoffs. I actually think the Celtics are still on track for 46 wins, based on the schedule and provided they stop blowing leads. But when you give up just a very few easy layups or one too many hilarious mismatches off of multiple switches, opposing NBA teams gain immensely in confidence just as the Celtics players lose faith and aggression. Pitino might as well give up on it immediately at that point, because you are only making your players look bad while encouraging veteran opponents to look harder
for the upcourt pass and play less selfishly. I'm not saying that opposing coaches and veteran players read the Celts like a book, but we are currently allowing .471 shooting on the season  and that is abominable. Playing traditional straight up defense with our "slow" and "unathletic" lineup, you'd still expect better overall results than that (with or without Fortson up to this point in the year).

Maybe the Celts just plain suck, but look around the league and most of the playoff-bound teams are just as much or more seriously flawed than we are (not to mention aging). So it's possible our Celts are overcoached with too many details and at least debatable tactics. They certainly aren't demonstrating much growth or learning curve on the most basic basketball fundamentals, and they have a LONG way to go already due to their age (no key player is over 25).

But objectively speaking, I think the Celts have accumulated 5 or 6 young players who could start immediately on close to half of the NBA playoff teams (hey, Battie and Kenny could even start for the Lakers). I don't think I'm wearing rose or green-colored glasses, nor am I totally unfamiliar with the level of talent throughout the league. I actually think our Celtics are pretty good and also pretty balanced. I have no problem liking them and rooting for them for the next decade, even if I were a casual NBA fan as opposed to the diehard Boston fan that I am and naturally will always be.



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