Re: My thoughts on the state of the team.

["Troy Hash" <troyhash@kih.net>]

I agree completely.  Battie makes good things happen when he is on the
court and he helps our rebounding tremendously.  With Mercer & Pierce on
the court at the same time, we are totally a team of jump shooters and we
know what that has gotten us so far.  If Battie beefs up during the off
season, he will be a good player.  He already has a decent offensive game
and great touch.  Play him till he fouls out!!!   Troy

----------
> From: Noah Evans <ishbak@conknet.com>
> To: celtics list <celtics@igtc.com>
> Subject: My thoughts on the state of the team.
> Date: Friday, March 20, 1998 9:10 PM
> 
> Seeing the (unexpectedly) woeful Celtics this year, I can't help but
wonder
> if we're squandering our talent with Pitino's current gameplan. With
> Battie's resurgance, shouldn't we be starting him? A lineup of
> 
> PG: Anderson
> SG: Pierce
> SF: Walker
> PF: Battie
> C:  Potapenko
> 
> wouldn't send any chills through the elite teams in the east but it would
> certainly do better than our current --undersized-- lineup with Mercer at
> SG. Anderson and Walker's lack of defensive prowess, coupled with the
> current starters lack of size(i.e. leaping and effort, it's not how tall
you
> are, it's how tall you play, ask Barkeley) and shotblocking make it close
to
> impossible for us to stay competitive. Moving Walker to SF would allow
> Walker to move out to the perimeter(which hides his lack of defense a bit
> more-- not as many layups for the oakleys) and puts a shotblocker and
> passable defender in the middle to go with our big body(the combination
of
> Battie and Potapenko would be like a poor man's Ratliff and Geiger). That
> would make us at least passable at man to man defense --instead of
> horrible-- and help the offense a bit as well.
> 	Putting Battie in the starting lineup would really help Walker out on
> offense. Walker would get to muscle opposing SF's in the post instead of
> better built PF's(remember how Walker destroyed weaker forwards(Garnett
and
> Camby for instance) last year?). Pierce would also benefit, getting to
post
> up shooting guards instead of small forwards.
> 	Putting Mercer on the bench would even help Mercer since his shooting
> deficiencies would be less obvious in our pressing unit(he really does
hurt
> Antoine and Vitaly when he's in, other teams don't have to pay as much
for
> doubling down and harassing our post men), which is more transition
> oriented(i.e. more easy dunks and layups for mercer) as well as making
him a
> bigger part of the offense when he's in(because he could have more of a
> role(i.e. more teammates setting picks for his midrange jumper) in the
> offensively impaired press team).
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Noah
> 
>