Re: coaches

["Richard & Cynthia Davies" <davies.design@worldnet.att.net>]

As always, Joe, I love to read your posts! And I definitely agree with this
one 100%.

Pitino isn't God. He isn't Stalin. He isn't Auerbach. And he certainly is
not M.L. He's Pitino (profound, I know).

As Joe pointed out, he's the first coach we've had in ages who knows what it
means to "rebuild". Okay, okay -- so he doesn't have a stellar record in the
NBA. Neither would you if you'd only coached for 3 1/2 seasons on
"rebuilding" teams. And, fine, he hasn't always made the best personnel
moves. But this team is a far sight better than the teams we saw under M.L.

And can you really expect him to be able to pull the same kind of swindling
that Red could? There are too many other smart people in the NBA now.

I think he did the best he could under the circumstances. I even think he
realized very early that the C's weren't going to do well this year, so he
might as well view it as a long training camp.

I'm even actually kind of glad that we didn't make the playoffs this season.
Would we really want the guys on the team to think they could just "wing-it"
and get in? I know I don't. And that's what it would have been,
"winging-it". I would rather that they learn that they're going to have to
work at it to make it.

Now, I agree that if he doesn't make the playoffs next year, he's outta
here. And as it should be, considering his "guarantee". But geez, let's wait
until he has truly failed to crucify him -- unless one of you can do better.

Rich D.



----------
>From: j.hironaka@unesco.org
>To: Celtics@igtc.com
>Subject: Re: coaches
>Date: Fri, May 7, 1999, 2:00 PM
>

> I consider myself a critic of Slick Ricky, but I have oddly never felt any
urge to
> criticize his personnel moves. Weird, I guess.
>
> Like all of you, I've been a Celts fans throughout the past six-year playoff
> drought. Setting all biases aside, I don't recall ever feeling even remotely
as
> positive as I do now about the potential upside of the Celts personnel. The
> operative word is "potential" (in both a positive and negative sense).
>
> To my knowledge, RP's predecessors in Boston (Ford, Rodgers, Carr) never
> demonstrated that they were thinking beyond a one year horizon, or actively
> looking to acquire the type of athletes with the potential to be have far
bigger
> years ahead of them. IMO, the most important thing Pitino did was recognize
what
> the word "rebuilding" actually means.
>
> Sorry ML, but it does NOT mean "stocking your team with players that can help
> scrape you into the 16-team playoff format." To Pitino, it really means making
> room for players that have the talent to develop into championship-level
athletes,
> even if they might regularly get badly beaten in the short term by less
talented
> yet veteran NBA players (Wesley, Fox etc.)
>
> It also means picking up a lot of hit-or-miss, minimum-wage players (Ty Edney,
> Ringo DeClerq) to try to create cap flexibility, even if it means having to
lose a
> few more meaningless games in the short run than you might if you had kept
your
> bench stocked by resigning your veterans (again Wesley, Fox etc.).
>
> I don't recall Pitino's predecessors in Boston EVER even raising the subject
of
> creating cap maneuverability as part of the rebuilding process. ML Carr's
attitude
> was : "if I have room under the cap, then my obligation is to spend it right
away
> on a veteran player that our fans have heard of." For some reason, the signing
of
> Antique Wilkins galled me much more than the often-criticized signing of yet
> another off-guard midget (Dana Barros) to start alongside Dee Brown. I
remember
> comparing the signing of Wilkins to the acquisition of Bob McAdoo in 1978. I
> thought it was the beginning of a long, well-deserved decline in the team's
> fortunes.
>
> I don't feel this way anymore (at all). Fine, one can compare the mediocre
> won-loss record of RP with his predecessors, but not the way improved
athleticism
> or upside of the players. From my point of view, I think RP has accomplished
> exactly what he set out to do in his first two seasons (build a nucleus of
> talented players he can work with). He shouldn't sweat it now just because the
> ride so far hasn't been as smooth as fans had hoped.
>
> This may sound strange at first, but I think the Boston Celtics are at a stage
of
> development exactly like that of Dallas back when they had successively
drafted
> the likes of Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson & Mashburn (or also the Washington team
of
> Webber, Howard etc.). The thing is that the Dallas management panicked when
their
> kids played "below their talent level". They broke up the young nucleus
instead of
> sticking by them and recognizing that inconsistent play and weak team
chemistry
> are pretty much natural occurrences when you are led by extra-headstrong,
> extra-talented young players (like the kind that brought championships to
Detroit
> and Chicago). As a result, all those guys are now mature 25-to-28-year-old
> contributors on solid playoff teams (except Juwan Howard who stayed put),
while
> teams like Dallas keep spinning their wheels with a new collection of
talented,
> underachieving young players each year.
>
> Egged on by the media, Rick Pitino will be under great pressure to do
something
> dramatic this summer and break up a significant part of what he has already
built
> (call it the "Dallas Method"). I think that would be a shame, because 1) we
have
> better talent now than Dallas or Washington ever had; and 2) under the
> circumstances, we are not really that far behind schedule when compared to the
> Detroit or Chicago championship teams. After all, how bright was the outlook
for
> Chuck Daly or Phil Jackson after year two of their regimes?
>
> Sorry folks, I don't know why I post long messages like this.
>
> Joe
>
>