Re: Eric

[opi@unesco.org]

That's right, Eric Williams did fall off dramatically in the last 5
preseason games, shooting just 4/20 (.200) with 9 rebounds and 3
assists.

Overall, he finished the preseason at a slightly more respectable
.341FG% with 2.25 rebounds and 0.75 assists. As I've noted before, Eric
Williams is a sub-starter level career contributer in every worthwhile
category other than scoring and drawing fouls (a career 3.6 rebounds,
1.4 assists, 0.89 steals, 0.18 blocks in 27.1 minutes and, oh yeah, 6
million a year).

Since Williams represents the Celt's only immediate return on the Mercer
trade (until Fort returns and we cash in the Denver first-rounder), I
thought I'd try to console myself by checking out the stats of the guy
he replaces on the C's roster:

Mercer finished the Denver exhibition schedule shooting a poor .391
(47/120) from the field. He did average slightly more rebounds than our
Eric Williams (2.63) and more assists (2.75 assists), but he played a
ton of minutes as well. FWIW, Popeye Jones played incredibly poorly
prior to predictably going on the IR, and Shintzius was waived.

Antoine Walker also attempted the same number of shots as Mercer (15 per
game) and finished at .433FG% (52/120) and a solid.805FT% (33/41). Not
that it means a damn thing, but Antoine was consistently on target with
my goals for his season (.455FG% and .848FT%) until that last Washington
game he mailed in. During the five game stretch leading into the
Washington game, he shot a very respectable .494FG% and had my hopes way
up.

On the other hand, he averaged a disappointing 3.25 assists, thanks to
two lousy games of 0 and 1 assist each, and he had only two games of 8
or more rebounds (something he used to get consistently, to put it
extremely mildly).

Who knows what parts of his game Antoine will bring to Toronto tonight?
In a way, I'm glad it is a road game and really hope Antoine (and
Pierce) play well for us. Pierce needs to stay within himself too,
despite an obvious chip on his shoulder regarding "Air Canada". If the
Celts put their money where their mouths are as far as rebounds go, they
can avenge last season's opener. Both Oakley and Willis have shown a bit
of their age in the preseason (the same I guess was true last year), but
this is a team more or less at full strength and Tracy McGrady has
showcased something approaching consistent 20ppg scoring ability.

Joe


*****

Josh Ozersky wrote:

> As far as Eric is concerned, it seems obvious to me
> that the reason he went crazy the first two games and
> has been a nonfactor since is that teams remembered
> that he won't shoot from the outside.  I mean, he'll
> pass up an open ten footer.  The refs see this as
> well, and so Eric has gotten any love from them on his
> deliberate drives.  On defense, he'll get there.  He's
> a good athlete and a hard worker.  But Andy Enfield
> better get busy with him in practice.