Re: URL: Fox Sports: 1/3 of C's Roster Can't Play Pitino Style

[opi@unesco.org]

Fox Sports wrote:
"Cheaney has shown that he does not have a true position in the NBA and
won't play ahead of Paul Pierce, who also plays shooting guard and small
forward. Pitino likes to press, but in Cheaney, Fortson, C Vitaly
Potapenko and G Kenny Anderson, one-third of his roster does not have
the speed or skills to play that style of defense."

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My impression of Cheaney is that he is still a decent defender, both in
terms of technique and hustle. The Wiz announcers commented at length on
his consistently outstanding defensive contributions all season, in
light of the fact that the rest of his game slumped badly.

One thing I noticed was that Cheaney has developed an awkward hitch in
his free throw shot, which is surprising for a good career shooter (he's
a career .710 and has shot as high as .812 on 200+ attempts in the 1995
season). Cheaney releases his freethrows like a ten-year-old, or someone
who's 4 feet tall. He shot .493 last year from the line, which is a
disgrace.

Going from 82 starts the previous season to just 18 starts last year and
10 fewer minutes per game (with the arrival of Mitch Richmond) must have
put him in a rut. I hope he gets used to coming off the bench with the
press unit. The nice thing is that the Celts have a group of
semi-competent scoring specialists off the bench who won't necessarily
get in the way of each other because they have very distinct (and
hopefully complementary) offensive skills. The exception might be
"Waltah", who's going to be all over the place as usual.

I think we can get a double figure game from at least one bench player
on any given night (if not from TB, Walter, Pervis or Barros then from
Adrian Griffin, Cal, both Erics, maybe even Turner). This was never the
case before. If the Celts had a similar bench depth in the 36-win season
(made up say of holdover veterans like Wesley, Dee, Dino, Fox,
EWilliams) they probably would have made the playoffs and set a very
different tone for the Pitino era and its young players. Basically
Pitino miscalculated on the team's future salary cap flexibility and
went with NBA minimum wagers like Ty Edney, Ringo, Dontae, John Thomas
and McCarty.

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