RE: Peter May On Fortson & Blount

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

Joe, I think this is one of the smartest things I've read this
summer, not that that is saying much.  Good stuff.  Have to
disagree with you on two points though.  I don't think that 
the poultry in motion D is necessarily weakened by familiarity.
Any junior high coach knows how the beat the press, so I'm confident
that most NBA coaches do too, and did two years ago.  What makes
the press work is that tired players make bad decisions under pressure,
and I don't see how you can coach that factor out of the picture.  All it
needs to do is cause a few key turnovers per game and it's done its job.
The frenetic athleticism of the executing team is what makes it work, not
the Xs and Os.

Secondly, I think Pitino and his staff are good at teaching skills and
developing
players.  Walter and Antoine are the exceptions, not the rule.  If you look
around
the league and back at college at the players Pitino has developed, they
tend to be
very intelligent and skillful -- Mashburn (nobody ever said he didn't know
how to
play), Delk, Mark Jackson, Billy Donovan, etc.  Dana and Kenny have both
become much
 better defensive players as a result of RP's coaching.  Antoine obviously
is borderline
uncoachable, and Walter isn't working on his ball skills either, preferring
to warble
out 2nd rate soul music in his basement.  I would really like to see Moiso
get a lot
of minutes this year.

Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Joe Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
> Sent:	Friday, August 11, 2000 6:33 AM
> To:	Way Of The Ray; celtics@igtc.com
> Subject:	Ae: Peter May On Fortson & Blount
> 
> Peter May wrote:
> 
> > http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/teams/celtics/
> >
> >  Boston Celtics
> > Team Report posted AUGUST 10, 2000
> >
> > By TSN correspondent
> > Peter May
> > Boston Globe
> >
> > They've used their mid-level exception on Randy Brown. The Celtics still
> > have the $1.2 million slot available should they choose, but they are
> > now spending time trying to deal with the Danny Fortson dilemma.
> >
> > The problem: They don't want him back, but they also don't want anything
> > back for him. Collective bargaining agreement rules make such a
> > situation unnerving and hard to deal with.
> >
> > With the signing of Brown, the Celtics are carrying a staggering $47
> > million payroll, or almost $12 million over the cap. Rick Pitino has
> > constantly said his annual "budget" consists of the salary cap, plus the
> > two allowed exceptions. That total would be about $39 million. So he's
> > well over what he says is his budget -- and now he's staring more money
> > in the face with Fortson.
> 
> Pitino says a lot of things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he said before
> the
> lockout that his contract with Gaston allows him to sign any player for
> under 14 million per year without the approval of the owner.
> 
> To put Peter May's "staggering" $47 million in context, for one thing it
> isn't in the top ten of team payrolls. Being above the artificially low
> salary cap is not an abberation or case of lousy management. You need to
> pay
> that much to compete. The only reason any team can get under the salary
> cap
> is if half the roster becomes a free agent at the same time, either
> through
> advanced planning or coincidence.
> 
> Last year's Final Four (Blazer, Fakers, Indy, Knicks) had the four highest
> payrolls, averaging over 63 million in player salaries. Among the other
> top
> playoff contenders, only San Antonio and Sacramento had lower payrolls
> than
> Boston, and that is in part because marquee players hadn't been re-signed
> yet (Duncan only signed this summer, Webber and, I think, Jason Williams
> next summer).
> 
> In the end, the thing that is "staggering" is that Gaston hasn't already
> sold the team that dad gave him to people like Bird (3rd highest team
> payroll last year) who are willing to compete for championships. I say
> Gaston should quit kidding around about being overbudget and quit the
> game.
> 
> For example, think about some of the players on a roster who are
> ridiculously "overpaid" and put it in perspective:
> 
> -Compared to Potapenko, starting centers of all shapes and sizes are
> fantastically well compensated. Rik Smits made 12.25 million, Sabonis 9.8
> million, Bryant Reeves 8.7 million, Divac 8.8 million, Shawn Bradley 7.56
> million, the retired Jayson Williams 12.37 million, the probably retired
> Ilgauskus 9 million. Even guys like Longley, Ostertag, Will Perdue and
> Matt
> Geiger all made more than 5.2 million, whereas Potapenko took home "just"
> 3.8 million. Moreover, Boston has him locked up until 2005 with an average
> salary that is barely half of what Geiger signed for around the same time
> as
> a result of putting up the same numbers (10 points 6 boards). This BTW is
> another reason why Potapenko's trade value ought to be a lot higher than
> some of us imagine.
> 
> -35 guys made as much or more than Antoine last year, which averages out
> to
> more than one player per team. Once the BYC ends after this season, the
> notion that his contract is too huge to make him tradeable is false. There
> won't be an Antoine "firesale" unless Gaston insists on it.
> 
> -There has also been some talk about trying to unload Kenny's huge
> contract
> on Portland in exchange for Stoudamire, but this could make a bad
> situation
> worse. Stoudamire is a 5-10 player whose defense can't be that much better
> than Kenny's, yet he was paid $3.5 million more than KA last year and
> still
> has 5 years left on a contract that averages $11.6 million per. Kenny's
> contract is 2/3rds smaller contract expires two years sooner in 2003.
> 
> As someone else has pointed out, Boston fans (and certainly Peter May) not
> only suffer from a "grass is greener" syndrome, but they also use it as
> part
> of their reasoning to criticize the team. Pitino and Wallace may look like
> "dumb and dumber" but they are no more sloppy or reckless in their
> decision-making than most any other team's GM. The problem is one of
> coaching effectiveness rather than personnel decisions.
> 
> To me, the relevant questions for next season are:
> 
> 1) Can Pitino's defense ever work at the NBA level, especially now that
> every opponent is used to it? Ideally, next season we'll see a similar
> athleticism on defense as his exciting and entertaining first year team,
> but
> with a lot more firepower on offense. In the worst case, Pitino's
> "poultry-in-motion" defense will continue its marked decline in
> effectiveness with each passing season. From the rest of the league's
> perspective, familiarity just breeds contempt of the Boston defense.
> 
> 2) Can Pitino actually coach any talented athlete to make intelligent
> (Celtic-like) decisions on the court and not jack up bad shots or show
> zero
> signs of improvement or understanding as the seasons unfold? Pitino
> basically has a blank canvas in the talented Moiso. I dread to see his
> development mirror that of Walker, Mashburn, Mercer,Waltah etc.
> 
> I have an open mind (provided Pitino doesn't make a desperation Walker
> trade
> before the season on Gaston's orders or to win back fan support). Once the
> season slowly approaches I'll probably go right back to my usual ways of
> predicting 50 wins and the delivery of major cans of whup-ass by Battie
> and
> Moiso (although I like Fortson more as a player).
> 
> Joe
> 
> ------
>