Re: The thing with this season is...

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

The C's will solidly miss the playoffs. What you have to take into
consideration is that the Eastern Conference was at it's
weakest last year, so naturally a very mediocre Celtics unit
could fumble and bumble their way to almost a playoff spot.

Baby, the stakes have changed this season. The East is now the
beast with improvements garnered by a vast majority of clubs
in the conference. As I mentioned in another post, the same
starters that couldn't propel the team to the playoffs last year,
in a much weaker conference are starting again this season
in a much tougher conference.

Don't be fooled by Pitino adding a lot of bench players. That's
all well and good for depth, but it doesn't negate the fact that
the same people with same inherent flaws will be playing the
majority of the minutes. If these same people weren't good enough
to get the done during easier times, what happens this season?
Ray



> --- OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org> wrote:
>
> > Subject: The thing with this season is...
> > Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 09:33:03 -0400
> >
> > >>Let's see what happens. I'm betting nothing.
> > 35 wins sounds about right
> >
> > The thing with this season is that 35 wins is
> > really a disaster scenario.
> >   I mean, we had to completely self-destruct
> > last season -- losing 8 of 9
> > with Pierce out, going on a ten game losing
> > streak in March, losing at home
> > to Chicago and the Clippers, the works.
> > There's no way that's going to
> > happen
> >  again, realistically.  I think we might miss
> > the playoffs, but I'm assuming
> > that it
> > is pretty much a lock that, barring
> > catastrophic injuries to Twon or Pierce,
> > we
> > get 40 wins.  On the other hand, .500 is harder
> > than it sounds.  If you lose
> > a
> > game, you have got to win the very next one, no
> > matter who it's against, or
> > you
> > are two down.  Last year, we pulled within one,
> > and then mailed in a subpar
> > (even
> >  for us) effort at Charlotte that  pretty much
> > killed our year.  I thought
> > so even at
> > the time, and there were still months left in
> > the season.   Last season
> > could so easily
> > have gone the other way.
> >
> > We all know what the variables are.  But with a
> > refurbished bench, the team
> > should be better rested, more
> > aggressive, more flexible, with a lot better
> > practices.  They will have a
> > vocal veteran leader
> > for the first time in a long time, for whatever
> > that's worth.  And hopefully
> > Pack/Brown
> > should give Pitino a much, much needed
> > nonverbal weapon against Kenny
> > Anderson's malfeasance.
> > (Last season, his only option was to turn the
> > offense over to an ether-dazed
> > Dana
> > Barros.) I think the time is at hand for Pitino
> > to finally pick up the whip
> > and work his
> > horses into a white lather.  That, I think, is
> > what the new bench means.
> > Pitino didn't
> > change the team 1-6, but 7-12 is all new.
> > Cheaney will be a defensive
> > specialist brought
> > in to shut down dangerous 2s; Walter will be a
> > monkey-outbreak specialist;
> > Eric
> > Williams will go in when there is hay to be
> > made against a slower three, or
> > when scoring
> > is at a premium (a cornish game squad of
> > Battie, Blount, Brown, and Carr,
> > say.)  The other new guys
> > will basically learn basketball from scratch
> > from Pitino; they will be like
> > a Kentucky squad populated
> > by guys with NBA talent.  (All the new
> > acquisitions have absurdly high
> > athelticism-to-skill ratios and
> > are quite young.)  I'm still not sure whether
> > there will be Kentucky-style
> > continuous substitutions, or
> > a 2nd unit "poultry in motion" team composed of
> > new acquisitions, but I
> > suspect more of the former
> > than the latter, with the outbreak team brought
> > in at the end of quarters.
> > In any case, the Pitino system
> > will be itself again, for better or worse.  A
> > meltdown could still occur,
> > but there are more buffers and
> > barriers now that "the system" and its
> > interchangeable parts are in place
> > for the first time.
> >
> > Josh Ozersky
> > Marketing Communications Specialist
> > Corning Museum of Glass