TIME TO SPIT ON RICK?

[Trond Jacobsen <tjacobse@wpl-law.com>]

I am stunned by the number of folks on this list calling for Pitino's
head.  My suggestion is that you find your own before drooling over
someone elses.  Sorry for the rambling but I am a  little disoriented by
the venom now surfacing toward our players and their Coach.

1.  Pitino DID inherit a franchise in the cellar.  15 WINS, as I am sure
you remember.  He WAS saddled with a host of incredible, stupid,
festering problems limiting his maneuvering room.  Has Pitino made some
stupid mistakes of his own?  Yes.  Which GM and/or coach hasn't?  This
is Pitino's second year of shoveling out of the pile.  It is a big
pile.  It will take some time, ESPECIALLY with the young players we
have.  Building up young players is the best approach to righting a
fallen franchise, particularly in light of changes under the new CBA.

2.  People over-dramatize Pitino's blind dedication to "the system".
The first team can't press so they don't.  Rick adapts.  Double teaming
down low is creating problems, so he brings in Potapenko, a credible
though not full-proof solution.  And, please consider the alternative.
You teach a system, you train and draft for a system, you plan for a
system, you preach for a system, but then less than TWO AND A HALF
seasons into the project you drop the game plan like it was so much
garbage.  Whoops, wrong message, boys.  Lets start over.  Talk about a
truly demoralizing signal.  I support the coach, and those players who
don't or can't deal, GET OUT.  My only criticism of Pitino in this area
would be that he's been a little to kindhearted on this score,
especially toward Antoine.

3.  Pitino IS a defensive genius.  There is a reason the Celtics last
year created more turnovers than any other team IN SPITE of players,
especially our marque players, not known as defensive stalwarts.
Pitino's approach, NOW IN THE THIRD YEAR, for goodness sake, is draft
for athleticism and offensive talent, teach defense over time.  What's
your preferable plan? As defense improves those our offense, admittedly
very weak at present, will improve.

4.  We can lob criticisms from the sidelines, but the fact of the matter
is there very, very few super coaches in this, or any, league.  What are
we going to do?  Lure Adelman from California?  Maybe Hubie will come
back.  Perhaps the Spurs owner will swap GM's/Coaches?  Coach Poppy
straight up for Il Duce, there's an improvement.  Maybe Doctor Jack will
come back?  Riley is locked into Miami forever, and Jackson WILL NOT be
willing to coach this team under these circumstances.  Young,
underachivers will expose his success as utterly reliant on two of the
15 best players every to play.  He knows it, and I predict would give a
polite no thanks to any request to serve the Celtics.  Besides, his Zen
mumbo-jumbo seems destined for LA-LA land or New York or someplace where
they go for that stuff.

5.  Give due weight to the problems, both mental and physical, created
by the unique circumstances of this truncated season.  Our best player
and our point guard show up incredibly out of shape in a shortened and
compressed season, and for a team the couldn't realistically be better
than upper mid-tier, and of course we will slip.  I do think injuries
and conditioning do account for slipping from upper mid-tier to lower
mid-tier.  NEWS FLASH, the C's were not exactly a title-contending team
coming into this season, and they won't be next season.  We live,
tragically, in the real world, and not in our fantasies of a new C's
dynasty a la Bill's days.

Yes, they ARE disappointing, and YES, some of this blame must be put on
the coach's shoulders.  But all of it?

If we were going into the bush, I sure wouldn't some of you around
carping and whining and criticizing the captain!

Viking
aka Trond Erik Jacobsen, law librarian,  and bleeding green no matter
how bad they sometimes look.