Re: (no subject)

[opi@unesco.org]

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> Come on guys, is there anything more insignificant than a starting lineup in
> the first preseason game? If Pitino locked in on one lineup and didn't at
> least experiment with players in different combinations, he wouldn't be
> doing his job. Injuries, foul trouble and matchups dictate a lot of
> different combinations during the season. Now is the time to find out which
> work and which don't.
>
> I'm sure we'll see plenty of Vitaly and Fortson together, just as we'll see
> plenty of Battie matched up with one or the other as well. One of the nice
> things about this team is it has several players who can play different
> positions and give the Celtics different matchup advantages against certain
> opponents.
>
> So let's not jump off any bridges because of last night's starting lineup or
> result.
>
> Mark

    Hi Mark, well yeah I somewhat agree there is no reason to panic or even read
much into this game. Even the Lakers blew a 17 point 4Q lead to the Wiz last
night. (For some reason, I'm also a lot less worried about the Red Sox now than
I was before last night's loss.)

    Looking back on last night, I'm frankly just very glad we lost this badly
(even despite a +11 rebound differential over a very solid frontline). I do
sense, however, that Pitino already has a starting lineup in mind, and that it
may be very different from the one we anticipate. I hope this game helps open
his mind, but it's also quite easy to draw questionable conclusions from last
night's result...i.e. maybe Eric Williams AND Battie should start (even if they
can't guard anyone one-on-one at their positions), maybe Vitaly must be
seriously reevaluated as potentially this year's Duhwayne Shintzius and the
wrong guy for the "system", maybe current starting center Fortson is a severely
flawed player who can't shoot over anyone (well yeah, since he's playing
center), maybe Pierce is a little over his head at guard (see Eddie Jones' 19
free throw attempts) thus creating a personnel logjam at power forward, maybe we
can't afford to consider starting two foul-prone big men in the same "checking
line".

    Speaking from my own sense of logic, I believe that 1) we should not now
disband our athletic pressing unit off the bench (led by specialized role
players like the shot blocking Battie and Williams) and, more importantly, that
2) Vitaly is going to look routinely awful trying to run around with that second
unit, but will be convincingly effective creating space for Antoine and Fortson
to wipe out teams on the boards on the slower, tougher starting lineup.

    Again I'm not suggesting I have the slightest clue what I'm talking about.
But as a fan, I really do want to see more of a sense of urgency from Pitino
rather than his glib, used-car salesman talk. And I want our sportswriters to
ask reasonable and actually very simple questions, like what was Fortson doing
starting at center? Does this mean it is now Fortson's job to lose? Why -- when
the Celts are so desperately behind our competition in terms of building team
chemistry and cohesion among our key young starters -- did Pitino choose to
experiment with both Cheaney and Pierce in the starting lineup?

    Getting to the good points Mark makes above, IMO the Celts had a totally
rancid and illogical first unit out there last night, which both in terms of
cohesion and experience deserves to get blown out by double digits against any
of the top twenty teams. Such an "experimental" lineup would only make sense if
it was at least a situational unit that we all could picture playing say 3
minutes together in a regular season game (IMO it's not even that). With a
lineup like that, I say no freaking wonder Pitino said his second unit has been
beating his "starters" in practice.

    As long as Pitino continues to line up Vitaly versus Fortson every day in
practice (for whatever retarded reason), I sense Potapenko is going to find
himself increasingly on the bubble, imagineably as a 4 points & 5 fouls per game
guy doing more harm than good on the pressing unit (where he just doesn't
belong). Although that scenario sounds bad (at least to me), it's preferable to
having Fortson have his starting center job taken away by Pitino, get denied the
starter minutes he has every reason to believe he has richly earned, and then
walk at season's end.

    So it's one of those proverbial "lose-lose" propositions, and IMO it's not
beyond the realm of possibility that Pitino will let this bad situation
continue.  If it does, I seriously pray we get blown out in ALL our preseason
games and that Pitino wakes up and smells the cappuccino. But if Potapenko and
Fortson both start in the next pre-season game, I'll happily admit I was just
being a paranoid fan. I didn't even get to watch last night's game, for one
thing. :-)

Go Celts!

Joe

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