Sports Guys Coaching Indictment

["Ozersky, Joshua A" <OzerskyJA@corning.com>]

This is from last year.  Thought I'd post it and see if anybody had anything to say.  I disagree with a lot of it, but it's really interesting to read now, especially if there are no trade rumors




START:.

It's difficult to judge Rick Pitino's coaching performance this season for a variety of reasons:

* Because of the lockout, Coach P didn't have a preseason to work with his team and incorporate his "balls-to-the-wall" system into place.

* He's also been trying to integrate three new players into the mix -- Paul Pierce, Tony Battie and Vitaly Potapenko (not to mention Ron Mercer, who missed the first two weeks with an injured knee).

* A brutal early schedule forced the C's to play 15 of their first 22 games on the road, which shattered everyone's collective confidence and sent them into a tailspin once the losses began to mount.

* As Pitino has repeatedly stressed, this is one of the youngest teams in the league; instability and defeat only makes his task more daunting. In a related story, the Celts are currently 8-15.

Those are the facts. Still, Pitino needs to take more responsibility for the way things have deteriorated at the midway point of this aborted campaign. Here are the biggest problems, in no particular order:

** AS ROBERTO DURAN ONCE SAID, "NO MAS! NO MAS!"
Are you ready for this stat? The Celts have lost 12 of those 15 games by at least ten points. 

(Unbelievable! Who's the captain of this team, the Tin Man?)

Translation: Pitino's boys have shown an alarming tendency to quit in the second half of games after they fall behind. The C's flat-out folded in nine of those 12 double-figure losses -- Hall of Shame tank jobs on the road in New York, Toronto, Cleveland, Portland, Washington, Atlanta, Orlando, Charlotte, and Milwaukee. In the last of those games -- the lowpoint of the season -- the C's were fresh off a 34-point win over the Clippers and even led the Bucks in the third quarter; by the four-minute mark of the final frame, everyone in green was impersonating the dead guy from "Weekend at Bernie's." 

That's a tell-tale sign of a well-coached team -- do they keep fighting until the bitter end? For instance, let's compare Gang Green (no pun intended) to three other rebuilding teams who don't possess half as much talent (on paper anyway). Like the Celts, all of them added a bunch of new players before the season. Unlike the Celts, all of them improved as the season went along:

GOLDEN STATE -- The Warriors are 10-14 (8-7 at home, 2-7 on the road) after starting out the season 0-5. Only six of those 14 losses came by ten points or more. 

DALLAS -- The Mavs are 9-17 (7-5 at home, 2-12 on the road) after starting off the season 1-9. Ten of those 17 losses came by ten points or more.

CHICAGO -- The Bulls are 8-17 (4-9 at home, 4-9 on the road) after starting off the season 1-8. Only six of those 17 losses came by ten points or more.

Does anyone believe that any of those teams have more talent than the Celtics? 

Didn't think so.

** THE GAME PLANNING MAKES PETE CARROLL SEEM IMAGINATIVE
As a hard-core basketball fan who was initially excited to watch a "genius at work," this is THE disappointing outcome of the Pitino Era for me. Quite simply, Coach P isn't nearly as innovative as we thought he would be -- if anything, he's pretty predictable. This team should be trying different things every single night, especially since it's a young team with no championship aspirations. For instance...

* Do you realize that the Celtics are the easiest team to prepare for in the league? Basically their offense can be broken down into four levels of priority: 1) Double screens for Ron Mercer, who shoots jumpers off picks; 2) Antoine stuck on the high post, either taking his man off the dribble or settling for a bad jumpshot; 3) Pierce trapped on the left side in no-man's land, either shooting quick threes or driving baseline for the 200,000th consecutive time (can somebody tell "The Truth" to go to his right once in awhile?); 4) Kenny Anderson getting fed up and selfishly looking for his own shot (either on an out-of-control drive or an ill-advised 18-footer).

Ladies and gentleman... that's the set offense of your 1999 Boston Celtics!

* How long do we have to wait before Tony Battie gets 35 minutes a night at power forward? He's the only forward on the team who can set picks, play defense and block shots. What are we waiting for here? If the Batman gets more playing time at the expense of Pierce or Walker, so be it. He deserves to be out there.

[Josh:  AMEN!]

* At some point, Pitino needs to develop a second unit that can press for four-minute stints at the end of the first and third quarters. The athletes are in place -- Minor, Barros, Bowen, McCarty and Battie -- and there's no reason this shouldn't work.

* Along those same lines, even the guy from "Sling Blade" knows that the Celtics suffer when Pierce, Walker and Mercer are all playing at the same time because all of them work best with the ball. So why not move one of them to the second unit? If it doesn't work, fine, but at least let's see if someone can provide a scoring boost off the bench. And maybe, just maybe, one of the other guys will develop into an end-of-the-game GTG (go-to guy).

(Personally, I think Walker would be perfect coming off the bench -- heck, it might even humble him a bit.)

* Since Anderson is clearly floundering, why not replace him with Dana Barros and have Walker bring the ball up as a "point forward" (like Chicago does with Toni Kukoc)? It constantly amazes me that Boston doesn't play more to Antoine's strengths -- he handles the ball better than any forward in the league, so why not let him have some fun and see if it works? Have you ever noticed how players on opposing teams look terrified whenever Twan's bringing the ball up in the open court? 

(While we're on the subject... just once this season, I want to see a lineup with Mercer, Pierce, Batman, Potapenko and Walker playing the point. Let's see opposing teams try and match up with that group! At the very least, it would be entertaining, right?)

Anyway, those were just a few things that jumped out at me this season. It's hard to digest when your basketball team loses 15 of its first 23 basketball games and makes the same mistakes every night -- especially when your coach is supposed to be one of The Chosen Ones in the league.

** THE "LISTENING" THING
This is one of Pitino's infomercial phrases/rationalizations -- "We don't have a good team of listeners right now."

What the heck does that mean? Basketball's a pretty simple game -- five guys get to play at any given time. Either they listen to the coach and follow his instructions... or they get taken out and somebody else plays in their place. It's not exactly rocket science. For instance, if Anderson and Walker develop their own agendas and start looking for their own shots, the remedy seems pretty simple -- TAKE THEM OUT OF THE FRIGGIN' GAME! End of discussion.

Here's one story that exemplifies the 1999 Celts: Three Fridays ago, Denver came to town for what looked to be an easy win, especially since the injury-plagued Nuggets were forced to start 6-foot-1 Cory Alexander against Ron Mercer. Needless to say, Mercer put up 24 points in the first 18 minutes of the half (all of them coming in the flow of the offense). With six minutes remaining in the second quarter and the Celts leading by about 100 points, Coach P gave Mercer a rest and put Cyber Twan back in the game. 

And all hell broke loose. Eager to outshine his teammate, Walker tossed up seven straight shots and looked like the second coming of Dominique Wilkins. No lie. Apparently he thought he was playing "NBA Live '99" in his living room and not actually playing at the Fleet Center with four other guys. Anyway, Twan single-handedly brought the team back into the game... unfortunately, the team was Denver, not Boston. By the end of the half, Boston's lead was back down to single digits and the Nuggets ended up making a run in the second half before falling short.

Now... 

It didn't bother me that Antoine played selfishly -- after all, he IS selfish. Incredibly, poisonously selfish. So it's not like the Denver game was a revelation. What pained me most was that Pitino specifically called a timeout after Twan's third errant shot because he could sense the momentum slipping away... you could see him yelling at Cyber Twan on the bench during the timeout to get his teammates involved... and Antoine came back out and shot the ball four more times in a row. It was almost spiteful.

Back to my original question: Are these guys not good listeners... or are they choosing not to listen to their coach? After watching Anderson and Walker take ill-advised shots for 23 straight games, I'd have to vote for the latter. Those are only two guys out of twelve, but in the NBA, all you need is two poison apples to sink a season. 

Especially when they're shooting a combined 42% from the field.

** THE FOUL SHOOTING THING
The ultimate sign of a poorly-coached team. Where are the priorities here? How is it possible that five of the top 10 players on this team are shooting less than 70%? How is it possible that your $71 million-dollar superstar is shooting a mind-boggling 47.2% from the charity stripe? 

47.2%?

Are you kidding me?

Here's what poor free throw shooting really says: "I don't care... I don't stay after practice to work on this... I could care less... 1-for-2, 2-for-2, what's the difference?... this definitely does NOT keep me awake at nights... the coach doesn't punish me for missing them, so why should I care?... people who shoot free throws well are dorks... if I really wanted to, I could make them."

In my opinion, free throw shooting is just like special teams play in football or defense in baseball -- it's a "fundamental thing" that always ends up making a difference in a team's won-loss record. Put it this way: If Bill Parcells coached in the NBA, his teams would make their free throws. And you know it.

THE TEACHING THING
Here's one easy way to evaluate Pitino and his coaching staff: Have the players improved as basketball players over the past two seasons?

The answer? Yes and no. 

-YES: DeClerq, Battie and Mercer all improved dramatically during Pitino's reign. Barros definitely became a better basketball player with Coach P. Pierce is already more savvy on the defensive end. Even Greg Minor seems to have improved, although he didn't have anywhere to go but up.

-NO: Travis Knight regressed and almost had a nervous breakdown before they shipped him west. Chauncey Billups was abandoned like a five-month-old puppy who couldn't be housebroken. Kenny Anderson is beyond salvation. And worst of all, Cyber Twan hasn't improved ONE IOTA since M.L. Carr was in charge two years ago. 

-CONCLUSION: Incomplete.

(One other problem: Does it bother anyone else that nobody on this team can throw an entry pass to the low post? Heck, even I can do that.)

THE ON-COURT CHEMISTRY THING
Think all problems were solved after the Walker-Anderson shouting match in Washington? Think again. Not only do the Celtics have problems playing as a team, they often seem more concerned about competing against one another than competing against the other team. For instance, do you think it's a coincidence that Walker started shooting 25 times a game and forcing his own shot once Pierce started receiving national attention? Have you ever seen a game where one of the Celtics caught fire and the other guys on the team deferred to him and actually looked to feed him the ball? Have you ever seen so many NBA players stand around with their hands in the air shouting "Whoo! Whoo!" while their teammates dribble around aimlessly?

All you need to know about the Celtics chemistry problems is this: Check out a column by Joe Pasnanski in the Kansas City Star from last Saturday -- basically, it describes a bummed-out rookie named Paul Pierce who can't believe he just got frozen out of the offense by his alleged teammates. It's an unbelievable column (CLICK HERE). 

And after you read it, ask yourself one question: Is anyone coaching this team? 

** THE ANTOINE DILEMMA
Fair or unfair, the way Walker's 1999 season plays out will be THE deciding factor in how Pitino is judged for Years One & Two in Boston. 

We've said it before, we'll say it again: Only a handful of young players in the NBA have as much raw ability as CyberTwan... and yet his career could go north or south. It really could. I can imagine seeing Walker's #8 retired at the Fleet Center someday; I also could imagine seeing him in a Clippers uniform eight months from now.

That's the power of Twan. Sometimes he looks like a combination of James Worthy and Marques Johnson... but most times he looks like our generation's version of Bob McAdoo and Dominique Wilkins. 

(NOTE: Nobody defended Twan more than me over the past two years, but even I've completely given up on him. Watching him shoot those fallaway 20-footers and glance up to his posse in Section One for approval every five minutes has given me a drinking problem during home games. No lie. I've hit the Sam Adams stand roughly 250 times so far this season. In fact, I'm drunk right now. And yet I digress...)

If Pitino can't figure out how to reach such a mercurial, elusive, enigmatic talent, then he's failed, in my opinion. Coaching CyberTwan is like taking an AP Class in high school -- it's difficult, it's painful, and it's probably not worth it... but you have to try, anyway. I know it must appeal to the competitor in Pitino. How do you push the right buttons with this guy? How do you make him understand that wins are more important than stats, that rebounding, defense, foul shooting and pick-setting are more important to the 1999 Boston Celtics than 20-foot jumpshots with 19 seconds left on the clock? 

Honestly, Antoine seems to be a guy whose heart is in the right place -- it's all come WAY too fast for him, especially the money and the fame, and it's inevitable that he would ignore nitty-gritty stuff in favor of gunning for ESPN SportsCenter every game. I still haven't seen a game in which he didn't give 100%; it's just that the 100% is usually allocated in the wrong areas. Take the Bulls game for instance -- he shot 2-for-15 from the field and had the crowd booing him every possession, but he kept playing hard and he never quit. It was almost admirable in a weird way.

(Speaking of the fans, the Fleet Center crowd has completely turned on Antoine now. They just don't like him... and it's affecting his game. Maybe if CyberTwan had shown up for the season in shape -- instead of a rumored 38 pounds over his playing weight -- he would have been treated differently by Celtic Nation. As it stands now, only Lucky the Leprechaun is more despised.)

As for Pitino, he's been cutting CyberTwan way too much slack since Day One. Last year was understandable -- the team wasn't going anywhere and Twan was in his "Lemme make all my mistakes now" phase -- but I'm bitterly disappointed that Coach P didn't put the shackles on his superstar this season, especially when Mercer and Pierce are more consistent offensively. Although Antoine is third in the league in "field goals" attempted behind Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett -- amazingly -- he isn't even in the top 15 in scoring. That's embarrassing. Yet Pitino continues to give his "superstar" free reign. Just once I'd like to see Cyber Twan get yanked from the game after hoisting up an ill-advised 25-footer, never to return. Maybe that would teach him a lesson.

There is hope, though. In a column from today's Boston Globe by Dan Shaughnessy, Pitino grumbled that "What we're trying to do is work as hard as we can under the circumstances, but if there's one guy that doesn't work as hard -- regardless of who he is -- starting on May 4th (the last day of the season), I'm trading him. I've made up my mind. It's not like I'm gonna think about it. We're going to get as many Vitaly (Potapenkos), as many Tony Batties, and as many Ron Mercers as we possibly can -- guys that really want to work on their game."

Hmmm... did anyone see Antoine's name in there?

Which all goes back to my original theory from Part One: Unless something miraculous happens and CyberTwan has some sort of life-altering, "Jules at the end of Pulp Fiction" epiphany and changes his game completely, Antoine has as much chance of being on this team next year as Dino Radja does. Case closed.

With that said, as a basketball fan, I'll always be disappointed that Pitino didn't find a way to get through to Walker this season. Eight years from now, CyberTwan will still be hoisting up rim-shaking threes for a last place team... and I'll always wonder if he couldn't have been redeemed under the right circumstances. Oh, well.

With 27 games left, maybe there's still time for a Cyber Miracle (the Jules in Pulp Fiction analogy). Stranger things have happened.

***** ***** ***** ***** ******

PITINO'S COACHING GRADE: B-minus
We'll make this quick since this feature is already longer than the movie "Titanic" -- Pitino deserves a fair portion of the blame for the 8-15 record here, especially for his lack of imagination and the problems the players have had following instructions and executing basic fundamentals. Still, I really believe that things would have turned out differently this season if Anderson and Walker weren't playing so poorly. And you can't blame Pitino The Coach in either case; Walker arrived in camp woefully out-of-shape and Anderson looks like the oldest 28-year-old in NBA history.

On the other hand, the Celtics had less talent last season... but they played twice as hard. Whose fault is that? Where do you place the blame? Doesn't the coach receive some of the burden there? If this were Pete Carroll and the Patriots, wouldn't we all be ready to chop Pete's head off by now, especially after 12 losses by ten points or more? 

Obviously, I'm not giving up on Pitino. If he's shown anything over his career, it's the unique ability to assemble the right mix of people (character, talent, work ethic, etc) who compose a winning basketball team. He did it at Providence, he did it with the Knicks and he did it at Kentucky (remember, the Wildcats repeated as champions AFTER he left, which says volumns about his "people instincts"). If the Celtics ever compete for an NBA title down the road, Pierce, Mercer, Battie and Potapenko will almost definitely still be in Boston while Anderson and Walker will almost definitely be gone. Therefore, it's unfair to evaluate a work-in-progress that still has a ways to go... even if it IS kinda fun.

Regardless, this has been a 3D season -- dissatisfying, disappointing and depressing. We're not even at the halfway point of the season, yet we know the Celtics can't make the playoffs in 1999, even though most of their remaining games are at home. That's why I really want to see Coach P do some coaching over the second half of the season. What does he have to lose? Let's see some different lineups. Let's see some imagination. Let's see some discipline. Let's see some emotion. Let's see some fire, dammit!

Hey Rick? Enough excuses, enough infomercial babble and enough doublespeak. Unlike Bill Parcells, you bought all the groceries here -- now make us something to eat! We're getting hungry. 

In other words... stop yapping and coach the damned team. 
Joshua Ozersky
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