Re: good lineup

[opi@unesco.org]

> Looking ahead, I am intrigued by a lineup of Pierce, Eric Williams, Danny
> Fortson, and Tony Battie together.  That lineup has tremendous toughness,
> rebounding, and ability to get to the line.  Williams and Pierce would
> provide their great slashing ability, Fortson would do the rebounding and
> the putbacks, and Battie would be the athletic shotblocker and inside
> scorer.  To me, these four guys together will do some serious damage if
> Pitino plays them together.

There is a real nice euphoria about Eric Williams out there. IMO we should
reserve judgment in order to avoid the risk of too high expectation. Bear in
mind that EW is a veteran coming off back-to-back .393FG% and .365FG% seasons
sandwiched around a major ACL tear. With or without his ACL history, one could
argue that Williams is inadequately well-rounded enough to earn starter
minutes on an NBA playoff-calibre team (in 27+mpg his career production is
just 1.4 assists, 0.18 blocks, 0.89 steals, 3.6 rpg, .250% on 3-pointers).
This may not be fair, but look at the record of the teams he's played for - a
"successful" year for him would mean he played on only the second worst team
in the NBA. :-)  His non-scoring stats really do tell a story about the
player. You would really have to dislike Antoine Walker to conclude that Eric
Williams is a better option at this point for a playoff calibre team. Antoine
hasn't gotten us anywhere, but he is a much better player.

My concern with EW is that he is the third-highest-paid player on the Celtics,
having been locked into a 5-year contract for more money than Potapenko earns
and more than Y2K free-agents Fortson or Battie arguably "deserve". So if say
Danny Boy were to again deliver 12.6 cans of whup-ass per game and shoot 50%
from the field this season, then Eric Williams salary will serve as both a
negotiating benchmark and a cap catastrophe for "Thanks Dad" Gaston, who seems
fixated with the idea of a team payroll not more than 3 million over the
present NBA salary cap. So say good-bye to Danny Boy (or Battie).  Naturally I
hope for the best comeback from Eric Williams this season. When you have a
long-term 6 million-per-year player who shot .365 last season, well you're
pretty much stuck with him.

> I am just excited by Pierce and Williams in the lineup together.  Two guys
> who constantly take it to the hole strong.  No more silly 3 pointers and
> ugly outside shots by Walker.

Antoine Walker shot .369% last season on 3-pointers. Here are some things to
bear in mind:
1) Antoine Walker scored 195 points via his 176 total 3-point field goal
attempts. In other words, he would have had to shoot .554% in order to produce
the same number of points via the traditional 2-point shot.
2) Toine did not entirely shirk his responsibilities in the paint. As per
usual he led the Celts in drawn fouls, with just 15 fewer trips to the line
than fellow post players Battie and Potapenko combined, despite playing 8
fewer games than either player.
3) The undisputed greatest of them all, Larry Bird, was a career .376% 3-point
shooter.

For arguably the first time last season, Antoine Walker started turning down
open 3-pointers early in the 24-second count. I guess he was aware of fan
reaction. There were moments at the top of the key where he'd look very
indecisive, especially later in the season. He'd either look around him and
then hand off to the point guard, or he'd take one indecisive dribble forward
(to close a little space with his defender) and quickly lob up a truly ugly 18
foot push shot.

According to Bulpett, one of the drills Walker focused on in Chicago was the
18 foot shot. If nothing else, it shows you that the Pitino organization
really watches video.

Cheers,

Joe