More Pitino thrashing (from Miami)

[kevin.lok@lycosmail.com (Kevin Lok)]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/columnists/detail/0,1556,winderman%2127000000000111761,00.html

Pitino's moves often a step backward
February 13, 2000
     A few weeks back, when Rick Pitino was under fire for the
direction he had taken the
franchise, the Celtics' coach and team president attempted to deflect
the criticism by
pointing to the advice of General Manager Chris Wallace.
   "Every decision that has been made has been made by Chris Wallace,
his staff and
myself," he said.
   Yet considering our background with Wallace while he served as a
Heat scout, and
considering Wallace's levelheaded approach in South Florida, it is
increasingly difficult to
shift the focus from anyone but Pitino.
   For too long, Pitino seemingly has been operating the Celtics'
personnel side on a whim.
The result has been a franchise heading nowhere. Last week offered
only the latest
example.
   After acquiring power forward Danny Fortson as the centerpiece of
the Aug. 3 trade of
promising guard Ron Mercer, Pitino lauded the toughness of the former
Nugget. Yet
Wednesday, six months after acquiring Fortson, Pitino dealt him to the
Raptors, saying
the power forward had no place in his rotation. Two days later, the
deal was rescinded,
when Toronto point guard Alvin Williams failed his Boston physical --
which only means
Pitino gets to trade Fortson again.
   And so it goes.
   Since joining the Celtics in 1997, Pitino has assembled a
transaction portfolio that is a
portrait of indecisiveness.
   Chris Mills, among Pitino's initial free-agent signees, lasted all
of two months in Boston
in '97, never to play a regular-season game with the Celtics.
   Andrew DeClercq and Travis Knight supposedly were the building
blocks to a stronger
interior. Gone. And gone.
   Chauncey Billups, Pitino's first Celtics draft pick, twice was cast
aside by the franchise.
   Bruce Bowen was signed away from the Heat as a bench mainstay ...
then discarded.
   Popeye Jones. Dwayne Schintzius. Tony Massenburg. A towering trio
of terrible
transactions.
   What remains is a team in an uphill fight to dislodge Detroit or
Milwaukee from the
eighth and final playoff seed.
   "We were not confident in our ability to re-sign Danny this
summer," Wallace said in
initially announcing Fortson had been dealt to Toronto for Williams
and salary-cap filler
Sean Marks. "No one wants to lose something for nothing."
   In Boston, it has become tradition.
   And if Pitino insists on chiming in with his perspectives on fiscal
sanity, then why is
Boston paying a coach $7 million when it won't come up for the
millions to keep the likes
of Mercer or Fortson?
   Fortson's falling
   You sure as heck don't want to be Fortson these days. Upon
acquiring the forward
from Boston, Raptors coach Butch Carter said, "If he didn't play well
in Denver and they
traded him, and he didn't play well in Boston, what makes you think
he's going to play
well here?" Now, Carter doesn't have that concern. To appreciate how
little Fortson
meant to the Raptors, consider Carter initially said of the deal, "The
best thing about it is
that financially we clear up $2 million in salary-cap room for next
summer."...
   Give Bucks coach George Karl credit. With no room in his rotation
for Haywoode
Workman, Karl waived the reserve point guard last week, even though he
knew
Workman would be claimed by arch-rival Toronto. "I'm not sure it's the
best basketball
decision," Karl said. "If we do get any injury, I don't know if we
could find a player better
than Haywoode. But because of what he did for us last year (filling in
for Sam Cassell),
we wanted to treat Haywoode with a lot of first-class attitude and
give him his wish." ...
   That hardly means there is rapture between the Bucks and Raptors.
Toronto's Carter,
in fact, said he finds it odd that Milwaukee has designated Toronto as
its prime adversary.
"For some reason, they want a rivalry," the Raptors coach said. "But
they don't want to
pick on Indiana, the Knicks or Miami." ...
   With its acquisition of Workman, Toronto has a century of point
guards, with Muggsy
Bogues, 35, Workman, 34, and Dee Brown, 31. That's not even counting
since-returned
Williams, 25.