Re: Spurs Are Really Outclassing The Celts

[opi@unesco.org]

FWIW, at least the numbers didn't suggest our big men lost us last night's game:
Ellison/Vitaly/Battie shot 12-19 with 12 boards in 56 minutes.
Duncan/Robinson shot 16-26 with 19 boards and 4 blocks in 62 minutes.

It's not the fault of any of our centers that every Spur not named Duncan or
Robinson shot .563 from the field (31-55) in the game, regardless of what easy
conlusions you jump to. Also, the Spurs have held ALL teams to .394 shooting this
year. Granted it was garbage time, but the Celts (thanks to our bigmen) managed
.449, which is good enough to win many games and suggests we weren't that far over
our heads on offense. This game reminds me of the 40 point win the Celtics had over
the Lakers in the Finals (Scott Wedman shot 11-11 or something), in a series we
ultimately lost I believe.

Regarding Way's comments, I definitely see a "grass is greener" line of reasoning
going on. Saying we need better centers than Vitaly, Battie, Ellison and Fortson is
about as useful as saying your favorite baseball teams needs quality starting
pitching. It's one of those throwaway "how to make broad generalization about
sports without sounding dumb" type of lines.

It gets trickier once you actually start naming the true centers under 30 (guys who
will contribute at their peak in 4-5 years time when our Celtis young nucleus
starts truly contending for championships) and who are big enough to seal off a
Shaq or Robinson in the paint. There are 29 NBA teams out there, so this is a
straightforward question. I'm not talking about what price it will cost to aquire
or sign these centers (Ilguaskus cost 14 million per year, Vitaly cost a high
lottery pick). I'm just asking Way Way describe what other teams have that the
Celtics also need defensively in order to neutralize Tim Duncan, Zo and Shaq.

Originally, I viewed Potapenko as a coordinated version of Greg Kite with the same
kind of attitude, and unfortunately my view hasn't changed that much. In many ways,
he's merely the second coming of Rick Robey.  Nevertheless, a lot of teams out
there right now would offer more than a 6-10 230 pound backup "center" plus a
top-ten lottery pick in exchange for a durable, still "draft age" center with a
very professional and tough attitude like Vitaly (affordably priced no less at half
of Matt Geiger's salary). Potapenko may not be worth his trade value (Robey wasn't
worth Dennis Johnson either), but that's clearly the reality regarding his value to
teams (ask Larry Bird etc). But these guys have actual jobs as NBA coaches and
GM's, so there may be no reason this should be as obvious to people who spend what
seems to amount to their entire day and adult life listening to WEEI talk radio,
surfing the Web, and reading the Boston Herald gossip columns, regardless of how
pompous and smug they behave whenever visiting this mailing list.

Joe
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