Re: Defense/Offense

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

The defense is improving, why aren't the Celts? You and Tommy are right,
there's an offensive problem. It starts with Toine and Pierce. We get
blinded by the big scoring numbers, but they are incredibly inefficient.
Toine, for all the strides he has made, still is a 41 percent shooter.
That's inexcusable. He's shooting 37 percent from 3-point range (and
falling), but does anyone really believe that a third of his shots should be
threes? Should he be shooting 40 more threes than Pierce?

Pierce is slightly more efficient, but still just a 43 percent shooter. Even
in today's NBA, when the idea of shooting 50 percent is laughable, 43
percent is too low. At least Pierce gets to the line, however, having shot
twice as many free throws as Toine.

The low shooting percentages stem from taking bad shots. Both Toine and
Pierce are guilty of forcing far too many bad shots. Granted, the supporting
cast isn't that great, but neither is the Lakers'. The difference is Shaq
and Kobe tend to create easy opportunities for those fringe players, whereas
the Celtics' supporting players rarely get the same benefit from the team's
"stars."

If Toine and Pierce could just redirect some of those bad shots into easy
opportunities for the Stiths, Batties, VPs, Kennys and Randy Browns of the
world, things would be fine. If a pig had wings...

I still say the time has come for a massive shakeup. Toine is in his fifth
season and shooting 41 percent. If you're satisfied with that and the
occasional progress he shows in other areas, fine. But stop expecting him to
suddenly become a 45-48 percent shooter and show more consistency. This is
his fifth season. What you see is what you get.

Pierce may or may not come around. I still say if you can use him to address
the problems at center or point guard with a big-time player, or as part of
a package to land a legit superstar (Garnett, etc.), then you do it. 6-7
swingmen who can score and don't defend just aren't that hard to find.

Mark