Re: watch what you wish for

[opi@unesco.org]

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> Nothing I've heard so far has made me any more excited than Alvin Williams
> and Sean Marks. Williams at least gave us that big, athletic point guard to
> go with the second team. He has been a consistent starter for a playoff
> team, after all.

I'm wondering whether Toronto will now have to release either AWilliams or
H.Workman, either of whom Pitino apparently would be happy to take for free
rather than trade someone.

I reviewed two more games on video this weekend featuring Fortson in a Celts
uniform, trying to identify alleged flaws in his game (especially on defense).
In the end, I still feel the "post-mortems" on Fortson have been a little
harsh.

For one thing, I honestly don't think Fortson's foul troubles are more than 20
percent the result of inferior foot-speed in man defense (hence, you can
eliminate the majority of his fouls). Sure there are cases where he is
split-second late to get to a spot, but that happens ALL THE TIME with every
player when it comes to Pitino ball.

Moreover, Fortson clearly wasn't and will never be just a "stat-inflated"
rebounder in my opinion. He has a natural nose for the ball  like I've never
seen in any player wearing a Celts uniform in the past two decades. It's hard
getting around that fact when you watch him. Twelve-foot carom off the rim?
He's somehow right there to collect it. A long shot that rolls in and out of
the rim? He's right there again. It's uncanny. He's a genuinely enjoyable
player to watch, in my opinion. I'd rather risk losing Fortson at the end of
the year than give up on him now in exchange for another athletic, non-veteran
shooting guard or a bricklaying taller point guard. If that's all that's being
offered, then I'd rather gamble Fortson on another potential top lotto pick a
few years from now. My strong preference is to keep him, though I don't want to
set my hopes up to be disappointed again.

Frankly, if Antoine honestly can't make way for Fortson's playing time by
playing a few token minutes per game at backup small forward at least as
effectively as one of our "three stooges" (take your pick among Williams,
McCarty or Cheaney), then maybe it is Antoine whom we should consider trading.
This situation still doesn't make sense to me. I have to assume the evidence
comes out during practices. I've not seen Antoine tested at small forward
during actual NBA games but I have seen him scoot around pretty well on the
perimeter once in awhile. Weird.

As for the "his agent is demanding too much" argument, I used to think this was
just Pitino's useful excuse for trading popular Celts players that he didn't
like or want anymore.  That could still be the case with Fortson.

But now I'm starting to believe Gaston really does plan to price the club to
sell during the off-season. I think he could strike a really record deal for
himself, given the economy and all the young Net billionaires and conglomerates
out there.

Those are just my feelings. A while back, I remember reading that the Boston
Celtics were one of the NBA's most valuable franchises, although I don't
remember the details (they were valued at just under 200 million I think). A
new owner will probably want to clean house, either by demanding that the coach
or least popular player get dumped. If someone like Bird came in, my sense is
that he'd happily keep both Toine and Potapenko. Ticket sales would go back up
again even if Toine stays.

Joe

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