Re: Who Stinks?

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

Daniel Forant Sr wrote:
> 
> Let's get to it quick, Anderson, Mercer, Barros, Minor, and lately Pierce
> is picking up the odor. Cinderella boy Mercer shows up sometimes, and
> sometimes not. I don't think he has a future w/the Celts. He's a jump
> shooter with no defensive capabilities. 

When an apparently bright and hard-working 6-7 guy with explosive speed,
leaping ability, and quickness doesn't play defense, I blame his coach for
either not teaching it to him, not motivating him, or both. And need I ask who
was his coach in college and in the pros?
 
> 6-16 shooting and 5 to's. He can't
> dribble, must have learned it from Chauncey, The team needs restructuring
> and will get it this summer. 

It needs it alright - I just don't think it's the kind of restructuring you
have in mind.

> The plan did not work out as planned. It's not
> the end of the world, life will go on. I see the cry babies want to remove
> Pitino. Naturally, they won't believe we don't have the talent to go
> forward. Well we don't.

I just don't understand why you write such drivel. We don't have the talent
not to get blown out by a mostly-CBA Charlotte? To beat an almost all-CBA
Chicago at home? We can't match up, talent-wise, with the New Jerseys,
Torontos, Milwaukees and Detroits? Are we 30 points worse than Cleveland w/o
Ilgauskas? 

> Pitino has the credentials in both college and the pros. 

What, exactly, are his credentials in the pros? He's had one(!) winning season
in his four years in the NBA, and that was with a good veteran team led by
Ewing in his prime.  Besides, credentials are good only for getting a job. At
some point you actually have to COACH, and I don't mean just telling the
players which plays to run, or calling out opponents' plays - I mean getting
the players to play the way you want them to play. 

As the present situation and the record indicate, he is UNABLE to do it with
this team. Nobody's saying he doesn't know basketball; what people on this
list are saying is, he is either too vain, or too stupid to change his
approach which will not work at this level - a fact his players must've
realized. It is Pitino's blaming everything and everybody around him for his
troubles that has "crybaby" written all over it. 

If the players are not motivated to work hard, then why is Pitino, the self-proclaimed
motivation guru, not motivating them? If they're so "rotten to the core" that
they can't be motivated (get this logic, the whole team is just "bad"), then
why did Pitino acquire them in the first place? (That's Pierce, Mercer, Potapenko,
Battie, Anderson, Bowen, Riley, McCarty, Schintzius, Jones, and Garnett - 11
out of the 14 players, folks!)

The point is, Pitino has NOT delivered on his promises, despite having a much
better team than what M.L. had. I remember Pitino's coronation...er... first
press conference very clearly. He said that his players will be superbly
conditioned, play hard in every game, and the team will progress every year.
Well, guess what? 

 
> These players
> don't have any. We need 12 players, we have one Walker. 

If you think that Pierce, Mercer, Battie, Potapenko, Barros, Anderson
(offensively) are not "players" (I assume, you mean at the NBA level), than
there's no point in arguing with you.