Re: On Bird & Pitino

[opi@unesco.org]

I've got to admit I haven't seen much of Alvin Chipmunk's reported lightning
penetration or above-average defensive skills, nor do I think Toronto's other
point guards ahead of him would start on most other NBA teams.

By "system player" I meant that Alvin was a Pitino system player. RP seems to
have a very high tolerance for very low FG% players with multi-positional
skills, regardless of the rhetoric. It's time to say good-bye to Ovaltine's
.392FG% and hello cruel world to Alvin's .414FG%.

Whew, I'm glad we made that upgrade.

Pitino seems just peachy about a bench whose top minutes per game player is Cal
Cheaney. How about a hand you guys for our Y2K "sixth man", averaging 4.1 points
on .425 from the field and .462 from the line. They should move the free throw
line in a bit closer for Calbert. Hey, I'm in favor of whatever handicaps it
takes to disprove that the 28 other teams haven't figured out how to pass and
score the ball through Pitino's headless chicken system outbreak after these
three season.

If it makes you feel any better, then let's go right ahead and keep heaping
blame on Antoine and Potapenko for our 29th place defense and the constant
embarrassing size mismatches and layups as a result of Pitino's "traps".

On paper, we downgraded mightily to go get Alvin (Mercer or Fortson, take your
pick). So he better make the "system" look better than it has so far.

In effect, the full court press is a good change-up pitch with kids like Alvin
and Waltah able to wave their long arms in the way of second-stringers of all
shapes and sizes. But it's the rest of Pitino's counter-intuitive halfcourt
gimmicks that fail against veteran NBA athletes. They merely pity us for running
around eagerly into hopeless defensive mismatches. Sheep to the slaughterhouse.
It's one of the best kept obvious secrets of the rest of the NBA teams.

When Pitino says "player X is a weight-room away...yada yada don't you love the
sound of my voice", the rest of the NBA general managers probably run straight
to their xerox or water cooler room to start high-fiving every employee in
sight. Antoine and Waltah have been in Pitino's system for more than half a
decade and they still can't get it right.

I used to think my video of the 1976 triple-OT Celts-Phoenix was a quaint
reminder of how revolutionary the arrival of Julius, Bird, Magic and Jordan was.

Au contraire baby, it shows just how obvious execution can make basketball easy.
Coach your talent to control the defensive boards and turn obvious passing lanes
and angles into an efficient (almost repetitive) fastbreak and you don't have to
dunk or do anything else spectacular to score.

Pitino treats the game like it's his own personal rocket science. The problem is
that he gets only 5 hours of sleep a night and makes dogmatic, robotic
approximations of intelligent thinking as a result.

***

RSMALL@clarku.edu wrote:

> >
> >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.
> >
>
> So, Toronto's system is the reason he was on the bench all the time.  Behind
> such greats as  Mugsey Bouges, Dee brown, and coming soon Haywoode Workman.
> It might not be the system.  I really have never seen much from him in the
> games I have seen him in.
>
> Rich,,,