Walker Not Ready To Be Small Forward

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

>By Peter May, Globe Staff, 10/29/99
><snips>
>
>Antoine Walker will play the power forward
>spot almost exclusively until Danny
>Fortson returns. ''It's not working as
>well for him at [small forward],'' Pitino
>said. ''He has a difficult time chasing
>small guys off screens. It'll take some
>time for him to do that.'' He then smiled
>and added, ''not that he's ever done that
>before.'' Walker is still not in top shape
>and did not have one of his better games
>last night. He had 7 points (1 of 8) and
>just 3 rebounds in 27 minutes and sat out
>almost all of the fourth quarter when the
>Celtics came back ...

What I don't get is that two nights ago, Walker started with Battie and Pot, 
played small forward, and had a great game.  Last night, they play the same 
team, Walker starts at 4 with Pierce and Griffin at 3 and 2, and he has a 
lousy game.  How does that add up to Walker is not ready to play the 3?  
Pitino obviously has decided that 'Toine has been having defensive problems 
at the 3.  That may be, I can't really say I've been watching enough of the 
pre-season closely enough to disagree.  However, 'Toine looks so much better 
offensively to me as a combination slashing, inside, outside threat, I would 
live with the defensive shortcomings until he's able to adjust.  It's not as 
if he's a defensive all-star at 4 anyway.  Also, as Ray eludes to, how much 
better is Eric Williams going to be at fighting through those screens?  I 
suppose that, realistically, the Celts are going to need Antoine to play a 
lot of 4 until Fortson returns anyway, so it's not a huge deal, but I 
thought 'Toine was a lot closer to making the move to 3 than it seems.

Jim

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