Re: On Bird & Pitino

[opi@unesco.org]

Gene Kirkpatrick wrote:

> I disagree that Bird is a better coach, etc.  He was able to start at
> the top with a seasoned team.  That the players respected him helped
> immensely, but he had a good 7'4" center, the best clutch shooter in
> basketball, a very good point guard, two banger forwards plus Jalen
> Rose, one of the better small forwards around.  Balance.
>
> The Celtics had little to start with.  Pitino had a youthful Antoine
> Walker.  What he has added looks pretty good in terms of a starting
> five.  But creating team chemistry and team defense just is not like
> making instant pudding.  He was probably right to try and trade for
> Pippen early on--defense and maturity being more important than
> players like Billups and Mercer; I opposed that but it would have
> given us a different team orientation.  Now, he has to lead them into
> playing team defense; on occasion it has worked.  We all act as if we
> haven't beaten most of the top teams this year.  The problem is
> inconsistency, not ability.  And when the starters or the bench play
> up to their best, we can win.
>
> Anyway, I don't think Bird would have done any better than Pitino.
> There are a few who may be better than Pitino, but not many.
>
> Cheers.  We're not far away from contention.  It just feels that
> way.

The toughest part is being forced to stew over this trade (and our 1-5
record this month) for an entire week before the season starts again.

I hope Griffin finds his mojo between his All Rookie Team appearance and
the restart of the season. Alvin is definitely a "system player" who can
help force havoc and turnovers, if not scoring, when he's out there.
Fortson was a fish out of water. This is a lopsided trade since Fortson
may have the capacity and work ethic to be the next Charles Oakley. But
it's not like we traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

The next coach of the Celtics should be given the right to reverse this
trade. I'm sure Cowens, Bird, Silas, Chuck Daly etc. would all rather
have a top-five rebounder among the team's building blocks than an Alvin
Williams. It's ironic that Walker's power forward effectiveness has been
shot to hell recently, just as we traded our only traditional PF
according to Pitino dogma.

Others may point this out in more detail, but Bird in fact inherited a
non-playoff team that had no promising young talent and a lot of brittle
old guys. The fact is that Bird coached Jalen Rose into being a
serviceable player, and he coached a team of weak defenders to play hard
and well. He and his staff freaking coached.

In terms of value, Rose was not even at the level of a Rick Fox three
years ago. He was coming off a 7.3 ppg 1.8 rpg 2.3 apg season. To get an
idea of what a journeyman he was before Bird arrived, Rose's career
scoring average still remains below double figures today, despite the
blossoming of his game under Bird (16 ppg 4.0 assists this year)

The "Pacemakers" were a non-playoff team because their players lacked the
skills to guard anyone irrespective of their desire to do so (they were
worse individually than our Celtics, I would say). Mark Jackson and Chris
Mullin have been a step slow all their lives. For all his size, Rik Smits
is not a shotblocker or a good defender even when his foot is healthy
(which isn't often).

Just my opinions. Pitino does have the team he wants (he claims no one on
his team will be traded anymore). It's "no more excuses" time. The next
Celtics coach will try mightily to dump half the headless chickens on our
roster in exchange for players who actually contribute something tangible
in the scoring and rebounding column.



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