The Truth about Cats and Pitinos

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

At 03:11 PM 12/14/00 -0500, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
>Cecil, I understand what you're saying, but there are problems with your
>argument.
>
>Philly did add those players through trades, but they traded away some
>valuable pieces. They traded Stackhouse for Ratliff and McKie. They traded
>the right to draft Van Horn for Tim Thomas and others, and traded Thomas for
>Ty Hill. They traded another young talent, Larry Hughes, for Toni Kukoc.
>They had enough cap space to sign Geiger. Can the Celtics make similar
>moves? Only if they trade Pierce or Walker. Don't you think Pierce and
>Stackhouse are comparable assets? Plus, the Sixers have Iverson; the Celtics
>don't. He's twice the player either of our "stars" are. So, sure, the team
>can make trades, but the only really valuable tradeable assets are Walker
>and Pierce. And you say you don't want to trade those guys.

Well, here is the problem. The Sixers started with enough talent and draft
picks that they could trade away guys like Stackhouse, Van Horn, and
Hughes, and still have Iverson left. You're right, Stackhouse is a top
talent, a better performer than Antoine in recent years. And Hughes has
that great upside and was drafted ahead of Pierce. But when you talk about
trading away Walker and/or Pierce, maybe we end up with the same type of
team as Philly -- except without Iverson. And that's really the key, having
this guy who makes it possible to play a team of defensive players and
still generate enough offense to win. But for the right deal, yeah, I think
that shipping out Pierce could help this team. I hold out hope for Walker
because I can still see that if he just has the right mindset on the court,
he can probably be a top forward in this league. If he has the right
mindset off the court and gets that body into top shape, he can probably be
a top 5 player.

Now I agree completely that Larry Brown has done much, much better job than
Pitino has in rebuilding a team, even though I think he started with better
materials. He's made quite a few questionable moves also -- signing Geiger,
passing on McGrady, drafting Hughes, and then trading him for Kukoc -- but
he's had a consistent vision for his team. He's gotten great play out of
role players.

When I think back and realize that we could have probably have a team of
Antonio Davis (who Toronto ended up getting for Billups), Shawn Marion
(instead of Potapenko), McGrady (instead of Mercer), Pierce, and Walker --
I mean  one of these guys has to come off the bench, unless Walker plays
point! Or if you want, replace Marion with Miller. That's a fantastic
lineup exactly in the mold of what Pitino loves, with good size, length,
athleticism, and multiple skills on offense. And it's not that farfetched,
if Pitino hadn't overruled Wallace in 97 and if he had stayed with his
original vision for the team instead of getting impatient and trading for
Potapenko and Anderson.

So they messed up. One of the reasons that I hoped that Pitino would
succeed is because I liked that original vision and watching the type of
basketball it implies, rather than tough defensive Philly ball (a
descendant of the Bad Boy Pistons and Riley's New York and Miami teams).
And I think that if we had the team above, it would have been successful
and entertaining. I think the next GM is not going to have the same job
security, will need to win right away, and may indeed trade Walker for PJ
Brown and ship out draft picks for some old defensive oak, like what
Toronto did. And we'll be glad because we'll make the playoffs with 43 wins
in the weak East. Except that we'll have zero chance of winning a
championship for the next decade. That is the type of outcome that I fear
is the future of this organization.

I admit daydreaming about some charismatic billionaire Celtics fan taking
over the team along with the Bruins and the Fleetcenter, tearing down that
boring building and putting up a wonderful new Boston Garden, and making
the Celtics the place of free agent dreams. But in the meantime, I'm just
hoping that we don't end up like the Nuggets, whose savior came in and
fired the incompetent management and coach -- and replaced it with more
incompetence.

Alex