RE: News

["John Lyell" <Jlyell@concentric.net>]

I think it is pretty much known that the big name free agents have not even
considered Boston as a place to play or Pitino would have made some deal.
Most veterans think Pitino's style is great for young kids, but is too much
for older players. Massenberg & Childs are good examples . Stewart even made
a jerry Maguire joke about Pitino. Turner will never provide the scoring
that Barros provides, and I am not sure he will work out any better at the
point than Chauncy Billups did. Point in the pros requires some real quick
decision making and unselfish play, one thing most points like Kenny
Anderson are not willing to live with. I think it is kind of funny
Pitinoclaims to like Williams game even though he didn't before he had a
major knee injury and jettisoned him to Denver. I agree Jones & Ollie would
not have made a big difference either as I do not expect Turner to.






-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Wang [mailto:awang@mit.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 1999 8:20 AM
To: John Lyell; celtics@igtc.com
Subject: Re: News



> I saw Turner at Kentucky & the Summer pro league and would not call him a
> true point.  He has never been that impressive, that is why he went
> undrafted. Kevin Ollie & former Laker Duane Cooper looked better at FILA.
> Expect about as much out of Turner as we get out of McCarty, pretty much
> nothing, I'd take Damon Jones or ollie over him,but then Pitino can't find
a
> lot of players who really want to play for him.

Damon Jones or Kevin Ollie are borderline player (like Turner) just trying
to make it in the NBA. You make it sound like they turned Pitino down or
something, when they would have loved to make the team. Why does this idea
that players don't want to play for Pitino persist? Didn't Cheaney turn
down Miami (a supposedly desirable warm-weather contending team) for Boston?

The only occasions that I can recall that Pitino's free agent money was
rejected for a lesser deal was by Derek Strong (Orlando) and Michael Stewart
(Raptors). Both of these players were rewarded a year later with large
extensions so there's a possibility of under-the-table dealing having
happened too.

I'd agree that we probably won't see much of a contribution from Turner
unless there is an injury to Anderson or Barros. Possibly he could be
called on to defend post-up points like Jackson, but with the rules changes
that may be less important. My guess is that he'll be slowly groomed to
be a replacement for Barros, who will be 34 when his contract expires in
2001.

Alex