Re: May Day

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

Don't worry, before you know it Pierce and Fortson will be back, and 
everything will be fine.  What?  They are back?  Man the life boats, we're 
going down!

Seriously, though, it is extremely frustrating how long it takes this team 
to adjust to changes in personnel availability.  When Pierce went down it 
took three or four games before they even started playing well, forget 
winning.  What's less understandable is why when he comes back, it's like 
the same thing all over again.  Fortson will take time.  It's like he's in 
training camp, with a new team no less, and everyone else is in mid-season 
form.  That wouldn't be a problem if the rest of the team were playing well 
and he could be gradually blended into the mix.  Thinking back, it seems 
like they've had problems with most of their new additions. When Pierce 
joined the team he looked great, but the team struggled.  When Vitaly 
replaced DeClerq, he looked objectively like an improvement, but again, the 
team struggled.  About the only time a player made an immediate positive 
impact was when Kenny first came on board, but of course, that didn't last.  
The first few weeks of this year is probably the best this C's team has ever 
played, but that was only after a long training camp to prepare.

You could say it's Pitino's fault, since it's his job to get the team to 
play well together.  It would be hard to deny that.  But the question is, is 
he doing as good a job of it as others could do?  I'd say he's doing fair 
(I'll give him a C+), which is disappointing because he was brought in to be 
an A+ coach.  And, the reason I don't feel he's been a failure as a coach is 
that the team has had no continuity in players.  I know, I know, he's the 
one who traded all the players.  But no one can honestly tell me that the 
team Pitino inherited didn't need to be completely dismantled. Since that 
process, I find it hard to fault most of his moves.

So, what's my point?  I don't know really.  I guess it's just because things 
are getting frustrating and we're starting to get the "dump Cheaney and pick 
up Jeff Sheppard" posts, as if changing one set of scrubs for another is 
going to make the slightest bit of difference.  On the contrary, I think it 
is of the utmost importance that this group of players gets a chance to play 
out the rest of the season together, and hopefully pull it together soon 
enough to make a serious run at the playoffs.  I think it is just as 
important that they stay together this summmer, and play next season 
together.  It took two full years to assemble a team that at least seems to 
have enough talent to compete.  Now they need to learn to play together.  If 
anything needs to be changed this off season, and I'm not saying it does, it 
is the coach.

Players I would keep to build on:
Walker, Pierce, Anderson, Battie, Fortson, Griffin

Players that could be moved without upsetting things, but aren't going to 
get you anything in return, so what's the point?:
McCarty, Barros, Cheaney, Williams, Ellison, Overton, Minor

The one core player who I'm not looking to dump, but if you could seriously 
upgrade without losing one of the building blocks (say by trading him with 
draft picks), I'd do it:
Potapenko

Jim
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