Preseason panic

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

All this panic about the preseason starting lineup is probably a result
of our collective excitement at actually having some Celtics basketball
to watch again. Anyways, there is probably some good reason why Potapenko
did not start alongside Fortson that we have not heard about, and I don't
think it is "Pitino can't coach." Who knows, maybe Potapenko is having 
problems with his girlfriend or was shaken up after going to court, and 
wasn't ready to play. Maybe he's been lazy in practice. Perhaps Pitino
just wants to see if Fortson can handle the backup center position if 
necessary; it's possible he could be an improvement over Battie at that
position. And if Battie and Potapenko both get into foul trouble, which is
certainly conceivable, this could be a lineup that we could actually see.
If it doesn't work, it's better to know that now so that we can bring in 
another center.

As for starting Cheaney, the guy's confidence is probably shot after the 
terrible season he had last year. Pitino's probably just using the preseason 
as a chance to improve his self-esteem before the games actually start 
counting.

Another possibility on why he started Fortson and Cheaney together: if he
didn't, the second unit would be almost all new people: Cheaney, Williams,
Turner, and Griffin all playing on the second unit. Maybe he wants to 
spread out the new guys between the two units so that each unit has a few
people with a clue about how his system works.

Alex