Re: Antoine the SF

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

I know, it's funny about Marty.  You would think we
would need more of a rebounder/animal than a scorer. 
Can Marty rebound at all?  

--- opi@unesco.org wrote:
> Alex Wang wrote:
> 
> > According the the Herald, the plan is to start
> Battie at power
> > forward next to Antoine. Conlon will be signed
> today to a one
> > year, non-guaranteed minimum contract. Nice
> prediction by kasper
> > nine on the starting lineup though I would guess
> that Battie is
> > the one to go to the bench when Fortson returns.
> >
> > Pitino is being dedicated in his desire to move
> Antoine back to
> > small forward, which is reassuring to me.
> 
> For whatever reason, that wasn't the case last
> night. ESPN listed
> Cheaney as the starting small forward last night (28
> minutes) with
> McCarty and Eric Williams combining for an
> additional 42 minutes
> (presumably a few of those at power forward for
> Williams).
> 
> Aside from his unacceptably high turnovers, Antoine
> has put up "veteran"
> shooting stats from the field and line over the last
> two games (his
> preseason stats are more than acceptable overall,
> despite a 6-18 game).
> On the other hand, Wallah and Eric Williams finally
> came down to earth a
> little bit, shooting 3-13 combined. As Theresa
> noted, the bench seems
> deep enough (with Barros and Griffin hitting 8-14
> shots) to make up for
> off-games from key scorers.
> 
> Getting run off the floor by this particular Utah
> team would have been a
> huge disappointment for me, because this is not a
> very talented team,
> with Stockton getting just 24 minutes and Malone
> out. The Celts actually
> outshot Utah from the free throw by 10 attempts,
> something that likely
> won't happen again upon Malone's return. Adam Keefe
> is more "the
> Postman" (starring Kevin Costner) than "the
> Mailman".
> 
> Although the Celts forced 24 turnovers, Utah still
> shot .518 from the
> field.  Teams like Utah continue to dominate a
> regular season schedule
> through their execution and experience more than
> anything else. In terms
> of talent, Vitaly, Antoine and Pierce would all be
> starters on that
> particular team. The Celts are built around a
> "veteran" core of
> 24-year-old types (Fortson, Pierce, Antoine, Vitaly,
> Battie, Williams,
> Walter, Griffin, Turner) with all but one of them
> signed to stable
> contracts. If Pitino can just keep the same core
> playing together for 82
> or more consecutive games, it's almost certain he
> will get a higher
> return than if he flips over his roster all over
> again. Many teams that
> are more promising on paper than Utah or Indiana
> have followed this "Way
> of the Ray approach" (I'm teasing) over the past 10
> years: notably the
> Wiz (Chris Webber, Strickland, Howard), the Mavs
> (with Jason Kidd, Jim
> Jackson, Jamaal + Popeye) and many other continually
> crappy clubs like
> our Celtics. Each year they feature very talented,
> inexperienced, but
> reasonably team-oriented kids, only to dump their
> "disappointing" young
> stars and reload if they don't see an immediate
> spike in the win column.
> 
> At the moment, Pitino seems surprisingly happy with
> his roster now that
> he has the two missing ingredients of successful
> Pitino ball (crisper
> passing, better bench depth) not to mention
> rebounding and toughness
> (which are far less of a Pitino team trademark, but
> seem undeniably
> important in NBA playoff basketball year after
> year).  Pitino does tend
> to take fans by surprise by dumping players we
> assumed he should be
> happy to have around (notably Mercer, Williams,
> Conlon, Fox, Wesley).
> But contrary to popular myth on this list, I don't
> recall him talking up
> a player's value in the weeks prior to turning
> around and trading them.
> In other words, there seems to me to be no basis to
> link "Pitinochio's"
> (I also like Mark's "Spintino" nickname) mellifluous
> praise of a certain
> player (Fortson, Williams or Cheaney these days) and
> the probability he
> plans to axe them. The only exception to the rule I
> can think of is
> Chris Mills, but frankly he had to say nice things
> about him when he
> signed him as a free agent a few weeks earlier.  His
> ability to cut his
> losses quickly has been mostly a positive thing.
> 
> > The second unit of Ellison (or Conlon if Pervis
> goes back out of
> > service), McCarty,
> > Williams, Cheaney, and Barros should be far
> superior offensively
> > to the second units of the past two years.
> 
> I agree. It's strange that Pitino is coming full
> circle on Marty Conlon
> and Eric Williams. Many of us thought they (along
> with David Wesley)
> would be among ML Carr's players who would have
> survived the initial
> transition. It seems like a very hasty signing. Did
> Conlon even play
> last season? Eric Riley or Shintzius would have been
> the logical
> candidates to fill in as third center, until the
> moment Fortson returns.
> 
> Joe
> 
> 
> 
> 


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