Re: On Bird & Pitino

[Andy Shaw <shaw@transmeta.com>]

|   Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 15:12:08 -0500
|   From: Alex Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>
|   
|   [cut]
|    
|   > Bird has brought a bunch of over-the-hill, unathletic, moderately
|   > talented veterans, and made them the best team in the East.  Those
|   > guys never did anything before Bird got there, and they've been vastly
|   > over-achieving since he got there.
|   
|   Pretty much the same group of guys did win 52 games two years in a row
|   from 1994-1996, so it's not exactly true that they "never did anything".

OK, point taken -- they had two good years under Larry Brown before
they let down, but IMO, Bird has brought them to another level.

|   Yes, they are unathletic, but haven't the Celtics succeeded in the past
|   with unathletic teams?

Indiana has one legitimate, but aging, All-Star.  The Celtics had 3 of
the top 50 of all time.

|   They have size, great shooting, and a ton of
|   experience. I'm not saying that Bird hasn't done an outstanding job 
|   but he did start out with a much better situation than Pitino did,
|   which I believe was Gene's original point. 

Talent-wise, today, would you do an even swap for their team?

Rik Smits:	 7'4" and gets 5 rebounds a game.
Mark Jackson:	 The slowest point guard in the NBA.
Jalen Rose:	 Bird has hypnotized him into being a good player.
		 He's never shown any potential to be the player he is now,
		 either in college, or in the pros.  If he was on another
		 team, no way he'd be a 16ppg player.
Reggie Miller:   He's almost twice as old as Kobe Bryant -- a more
		 one-dimensional player you will be hard-pressed to find.
Dale Davis:	 The worst All-Star player in recent history.


Somebody just posted saying that Jackson, Rose and Miller are
"athletic" ... which I can only say is bizarre.  In what way is Mark
Jackson "athletic"?


I didn't expect Bird to be a good coach, but he has proven to be an
extremely good coach.  He's connected with his players, and he has
their complete respect.  He's hidden their many weaknesses, and
exploited their strengths.  He's made players from non-players, like
Jalen Rose.  He's made the whole greater than sum of the parts.  Isn't
that what a good coach does?

As for Pitino, it's hard to say ... what I've seen in games doesn't
impress me.  Individual personnel moves haven't impressed me, but he's
managed to improve the personnel quite a bit.  Unlike Bird, however,
he doesn't seem to do a lot with what he's got.

-Andy