Re: Fellowship of the miserable

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> I don't know how you cannot look at all of the moves that have been made and
> say he should not be accountable for them ?

John, 

I am not saying that he should not be held accountable for all of his
moves. My problem is with the "accounting" techniques that are used to
justify your criticism for him. For instance, you criticize him for
multiple bad moves in signing Travis Knight and trading for Tony
Battie, when the net effect has essentially been trading $2M of 97-98
cap space for Tony Battie. You can like or not like the acquisition of
Tony Battie, but if you don't, it's one mistake, not two. For
instance, say that Pitino signs some loser, then trades him for
another loser, and trades a loser for a loser ten times. Then he
trades the loser for Tim Duncan.  By the type of accounting you've
been using, he's made ten mistakes and one good move. In reality, he'd
be a genius. I'm not saying that he has done anything like this, but
my point is that using some sort of "mistakes vs. good moves" batting
average is misleading. What really matters is, do you like his current
roster? You sound like you don't and there is nothing wrong with that,
everyone has a right to their own opinion.  But just listing Pitino's
numerous "mistakes" and saying they outnumber his good moves doesn't
prove he's some sort of personnel idiot. If anything, many GMs are
hesitant to correct their own mistakes because it involves admitting
their own mistakes. By this sort of accounting technique, their
batting average is higher, but the team they end up with is usually
mediocre.
 
> If you read my post you would have seen I gave him credit for moving Knight.
> Signing Battie, to a long term deal when he has not proven squat, and has
> not shown he can play physical at the 4 or 5 (the same problem Knight had
> !), I do not call a good move.

You get what you pay for. How much do you think a proven young
physical 4 or 5 costs in the league nowadays? $71M, basically, and
that's generally a bargain. Battie, as an unproven, inconsistent, and
not particularly physical prospect, but with good offensive and
shotblocking potential, goes for $25M. Whether it is a good move or
not, we won't know until his contract is up in 7 years.
 
> As far as "Who care about throw-ins" , I agree on Tabak & Popeye, but as far
> as EW, you had better care, as you may be stuck with their contracts for the
> duration, like Barros & Ellison. It does not take a capologist to figure
> this out.  Don't say who cares about throw-ins, but then blame the cap for
> not being able to make moves.

I'm not saying that throw-ins aren't a big deal, especially when they
are the size of Eric Williams. But you list this as a Pitino mistake,
as if he demanded Eric Williams as part of the trade. The reality of
this is probably (we can't know for sure, of course) that Denver
required that Boston accept Williams' contract in order to agree to
this trade. Now, you can say that "I don't like the overall Denver
trade of Mercer and junk for Fortson, the Denver pick, and Eric
Williams and his bloated contract" but to single out the
re-acquisition of Williams as a Pitino mistake is again a case of
phony accounting to make Pitino look bad.
 
> As far as the young for old, their are both pro's & cons of this. The pro
> "At least we have a young nucleus" (Something the Clippers have been saying
> this for the last 10 years), The con, we do not have any experienced go to
> leaders, and cannot draw a veteran free agent to Boston. name me one major
> talent that has even considered Boston as a place to play over the last 5
> years ?  The only one I can think of is Vin Baker, and possibly Charles
> Oakley, who mentioned it.

Mitch Richmond said flat out that he would have no problem playing in
Boston.  Scottie Pippen was willing to accept the trade to Boston in
97 and said how he would assume that Boston would sign him to a
lucrative long-term deal under the Bird exception given the investment
in the trade that they would have to make.

Can you name a major talent that has said, "I will not consider
playing in Boston?" I recall Tim Hardaway saying something of that
sort, and that is all. You see, if you are going to make a completely
unsubstantiated statement about "veteran free agents will not come to
Boston", you have to come up with the names, not me. I think the proof
will be if and when Boston's own free agents decide to take less money
to sign with another team.
 
> As far as major FA's you are not going to get something for nothing. True we
> have had cap problems, but with the exception of Barros & Ellison, all other
> moves i.e McCarty, Knight, Battie, Williams, are all due to Pitino's moves,
> so that is not an excuse. You need to be creative in sign and trade deals,
> as Portland was with Steve Smith and Pippen.  They had a much better team
> than us , but were not afraid to pull the trigger on moving some big ticket
> players in an attempt to improve their team.  I still can't believe they got
> Pippen for basically nothing.  If we suffer through a poor year this year, I
> expect Walker or Pierce to be gone in an attempt to improve chemistry.  You
> just can't continue to blame the cap, someone else, or give the old "We'll
> get em next year" We have had since the late 80's to rebuild, and just have
> done a poor job.  Lewis and Bias hurt, but that is a thing of the past.

Do you really think that Pitino is afraid to pull the trigger? He's
traded one major piece every season so far (Billups in 97-98, Mercer
in 99).  It's not like he's stuck in "can't trade" mode or something,
but let's be a little patient here. It's only been 14 games since
Pitino's last big trade (Mercer), we haven't seen the fruits of that
trade yet (Fortson), and you're already talking about breaking up the
team again. I could see Walker getting dealt if the season goes badly
because Pitino does seem somewhat dissatisfied with him. Whatever, 
that's a little far afield.

My main point is, judge Pitino's personnel moves by the team he
actually has now, not through some misleading accounting system that
judges individual moves out of context. I have no problem with people
not liking the current personnel but personally I think he's done a
nice job with what he started with. And stop the "Boston can't attract
veteran free agent" BS unless you can somehow substantiate it.  It's
just one of those criticisms that gets constantly repeated and as far
as I can tell has absolutely no factual basis.

Alex