Re: Pitino's influence (was Re: Mercer for Shandon and Quincy Lewis...)

[KK <Kestutis.Kveraga@Dartmouth.EDU>]

Warwick wrote:
 
> Are you forgetting that we did not draft Tony Battie? - You said 'anyone could have
> drafted Tony Battie'.

No, what I'm saying (and I've said it before) is, we didn't need to go
through the Banana Boy fiasco to get Battie - we could've drafted him
instead of Billups. We also wouldn't have a 7 mil./yr. albatross called
Kenny around our neck right now. We also would not have needed to let Wesley
go. David, while not a natural PG, was always in great shape, was an
excellent defender and, IMO, would've been a better fit for us at PG than
either Billups or Anderson, for considerably less money.  

> I honestly dont believe you can blame him for the regression of the aformentioned
> players; how many teams had players who suffered badly directly due to the NBA
> lockout? I can name every team that had at least one player that suffered;
> unfortunately it were our three stars but they all had their reasons and mostly it was
> due to injuries.

Walker's and Anderson's poor decision-making in the first half of the season
had nothing to do with injuries, for they weren't injured until later in the
season. We can argue about the reasons, but their coming in out of shape and
the demonstrated inability of Pitino to do anything about their selfish &
stupid play probably had something to do with it. Mercer DID show up in good
shape, but still was forcing up bad shots. I don't think it had anything to
do with his injury, but rather to his being up for an extension after the
season. 

Saying that this type of thing also happens on other teams is an incredibly
weak defense of Pitino's allegedly superior leadership, motivational, and
coaching abilities. I think his record so far shows that he's no better at
it than most of the other coaches in the NBA. Moreover, given the trouble he
had managing  the relatively docile Walker, Anderson and Mercer, how do you
think he would've done in Van Gundy's or Dunleavy's situation?
 
> The Celts may have been deliberately losing games prior to the acquistion of Rick
> Pitino, but, it wasn't just that one season that the Celtics were headed in the right
> way, it was before that point as well.

That's true - but the point was, the organization had hit the rock bottom
and had nowhere to go but up. My whole objection to your
Pitino-as-the-miracle-worker argument is that he's no different from most
other coaches. If you take over a team with an artificially bad record, and
have 4 high draft picks three consecutive years, how the hell can you NOT
improve? Following your reasoning, Popovich already should be in the Hall of
Fame as coach for taking the Spurs from the lottery to the championship in 2
years. Somehow I don't remember your giving HIM all the credit for the
Spurs' success.