Hard work

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

This snippett tells you everything you need to know about Adrian Griffin ...
not just as a person, but about the kind of effort that's needed to excel in
the league. If Griffin is one of the main reasons for our early success, this
graf should be required reading for all Celtics:

>It was 5:15 p.m., nearly two hours before
>tipoff for last night's Boston-Charlotte game at the
>Fleet Center, and many of the players were beginning to
>arrive.

>One Celtic starter, though, already was out on the
>court, in full uniform and hard at work. Rookie Adrian
>Griffin was with assistant coach Andy Enfield, moving
>to the basket, cutting behind an imaginary screen,
>squaring off after taking a pass from Enfield and
>taking mid-range jumpers.

How many of us would like to see Antoine Walker show up two hours early for
some on-on-one work? A show of hands, please.

Another thing: both Paul Silas and Elden Campbell referred to the Celtics
after Friday's game as "high-energy." That was the hallmark of Pitino's first
team, and why nobody liked to play them. The Celtics need to keep that kind of
energy foremost in their minds.

Poor Griffin, though. Even the Charlotte papers don't give him his props,
saying it was Kenny Anderson who stole the ball from Jones.

One last note about AG: Alex Wang noted that "having Griffin is like having a
second point guard on the floor on 
offense." That's exactly why I think Griffin has to go to the 2nd unit when
Fortson comes back. Since Dana's ball-handling is poor, Professor Grif could
help the 2nd team on the press. First unit would still have 2 quality
ballhandlers in Kenny and Antoine. I think the reason Pitino's keeping Walker
at PF for now is that he doesn't want Pervis to be the only big man on the
bench. But when Fortson's ready, either he or Battie will be in the starting lineup.

Of course, the Overton acquisition could shake-up the PG rotation in unforseen
ways. I personally can't see him getting much PT; but obviously, Pitino wasn't
comfortable with Dana and the rookie as his only backups to Kenny, no matter
how good Griffin's ball-handling is.
 
It will surely be interesting to see how RP handles his small forward glut
when Danny's back. Griffin is obviously staying in the rotation, barring a
collapse; Cheaney is finally coming on, so how many minutes can Griffin expect
at 2?; and it would be folly to sit Williams, since he's about our only inside
scorer. Waltuh? Hasn't done much since the opening-night frenzy. Of couse, all
of this is at least 6 weeks away, and much could happen before then.