What's wrong?

[Ellie Cutler <ellie@oreilly.com>]

Thoughts after the loss against Minnesota:

McHale said you need to let them grow up together, which is nearly
impossible with kids changing teams as often as they do nowadays.  With our
money situation, we do have the opportunity to keep a young nucleus
together - and since that's a rare chance maybe we should give them a few
years to see what happens.

Heinsohn said this season is an abberation all the way around, so you can't
really get an accurate reading of the team.  He feels the fans are wrong to
boo Walker. Also, the last player he remembers getting booed was Sidney
Wicks (I think Heinsohn was coaching then).  It's true that other teams are
stinking out the joint as well.

Me, I think Pitino is not an NBA coach.  He needs too much control over his
players and treats them like children.  I think his practice of grading out
the games is also one way of keeping control. I remember when Pierce had
one of his outstanding earlier games. Think Pitino would give him a pat on
the back? No, it had to be a knock down - that he graded out poorly, so
don't think you're really any good, kid.  I don't see him respecting his
players as adults, really, and I know they're young, but they have to grow
up sometime and come into their own. Can they do it with Pitino at the
helm? I'm not so sure. If he lets them mature, will he still be able to
keep control? He likes the kids because he knows how to get results as a
strict father figure, but the NBA is different than that.

And, SFs may be a dime a dozen, but Paul Pierce has the best basketball
instincts of any player on this squad, and some of the best I've seen in
the league, period.  He's the guy who you could see having his number in
the rafters someday.  And, when he's on his game, the team is better.  I
don't see that from Mercer, or, to be honest, Walker. Pierce and Walker
worked well together. Now that Mercer is back, things have been going
downhill.  I know that Michael Holley and Pitino and others think Mercer's
the guy to keep, but I don't see it (at least not at the expense of trading
Pierce).

As for Antoine, he has his moments, but they are balanced by his equal
number of bonehead moments.  I don't know that that's something you
outgrow, or if it's just part of his basketball personality (kind of like
Rick Fox - not that they were the same ability, but Fox was always
cancelling out his good shooting and brilliant D with bonehead plays). So
do Antoine's great moments make up for his knucklehead ones?  Or will he
always be a liability?  This was supposed to be the year he concentrated on
basketball, now that his contract is behind him.  

Pitino is threating big changes - we'll see. I like Pierce, Battie, and
Potapenko.  I'd like to get Lorenzen Wright. As for guards, I'd keep Mercer
and find another point guard.

 --Ellie