RE: Brown on the Celtics...I'm confused.

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

I think it's some of both. I think these players are not very bright or
coachable. And I think Pitino continues to misuse them. Antoine is going to
make someone a pretty damn good small forward someday. (What are his biggest
weaknesses? He can't finish against bigger, stronger players, and he can't
defend bigger, stronger players.) Of course, if the Celtics had one decent
option at power forward, maybe this change already would have been made. Can
you imagine Antoine playing alongside Dale Davis?

Anyway, you're right Paul, it's not very difficult. We don't honestly
believe that Pitino is so dumb not to know it, do we? It's the NBA, but it's
still basketball. I think he does try to teach it and coach it, but I think
he has some players who are slow learners (Battie), a little lazy (Pierce
and Walker) and not very good (take your pick). All these young guys talk
about wanting to run and gun, but that's not what they really mean. What
they mean is, they want to get some breakaway dunks and put on a show. 

How many big men in the league should be able to outrun Tony Battie down the
floor? You can count them on one hand and have enough fingers left over to
wind your watch. As long as Walker is at power forward, shouldn't he outrun
every power forward he faces? Instead, he's usually beaten down the floor by
bigger, slower players. We've talked about Pierce's sluggishness in
transition until I'm sick of talking about it.

Everyone associates youth and athleticism (by the way, the Celts really
aren't that athletic; only Battie might be considered above average for his
position... oh, and Moiso, but, well...) with a great running game, but what
makes a great running game is a willingness to run. Karl Malone still runs
the floor better than any power forward in the league, and John Stockton
still pushes the ball. The Celts don't have players willing to run hard
(exceptions... Brown, Stith, Herren and... that's it). They'd rather lope
down the floor and get the ball 30 feet from the basket, dribble between
their legs a few times, spin once or twice and shoot over two or three
defenders.

Anyone who thinks Pitino is holding these guys back is kidding themselves.
He loves to run. His players don't. As usual around the Celtics, the players
are winning that vote.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: damekmo@teleport.com [mailto:damekmo@teleport.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 7, 2000 11:30 AM
To: celtics@igtc.com
Subject: Brown on the Celtics...I'm confused.


>    ``We're just not communicating on defense still,'' Brown said.
>``That's one of our main points. The most important thing we have to get
>the concept of is if we're in transition defense, nobody has a man. If I
>have to be on Kevin Garnett in transition defense, that's the way it has
>to be. And we haven't gotten that down yet.<P>

You know, maybe I'm being picky here, but what the hell is so hard about
the above? After how many years of playing basketball...I mean....isn't
this kind of basic? And why isn't the "coach" getting this across to the
players. It seems to me that something is terribly wrong here. And Brown's
right about this team's inability to get easy baskets. Has this team ever
gotten easy baskets during the Pitino years? Has Pitino figured out a way
to use all that athleticism? Something's wrong here. Does Pitino have the
stupidest players in the NBA or is he putting them in a position where it's
apparently impossible for them to succeed. I guess what I'm asking...is
Pitino making this whole thing too difficult for these guys by mis-using
them somehow?

Am I being clear?


Paul M.