Re: Dan Forant's observations NOT

[opi@unesco.org]

DJessen33@aol.com wrote:

> Josh,
> I wrote the observations. First, I am not necessairly advocating the exact
> trade of Walker for Davis. However, I am looking for a player like him and am
> willing to trade Walker and our no.1 to get him. Hopefully, we could get more
> out of the deal. Second, fastbreaking is a mentality. It is taught in junior
> high basketball so overall, it isn't that complicated. The biggest key is for
> players to fill lanes and get the court as fast as possible. On our team,
> players either don't feel it is worth it because the ball isn't going to be
> passed to them or they just don't want to put out the energy. If you want to
> see a "new" fastbreaking team, watch the Pistons. They are breaking all over
> the place and they were never known as a breaking team before. They are
> breaking out of necessity since they have no inside players. We have a
> couple, but still should fast break some. One of the greatest halfcourt teams
> of all, the 80's Celtics, fast breaked 10 times more than us now...
>
> DJessen33

KC Jones' teams fastbreaked pretty effectively. If you watch tapes of Heinsohn's
Celtics teams, they were even more effective at it than the Bird teams (more akin
to the Laker's "showtime", minus the dunks).

Blaming our players for the lack of execution on the fast break is unfair. It's
bad enough that they are forced to run the laughing-stock "headless chicken
outbreak" with such youthful and sincere good faith.

But one could argue that Rick Pitino is to NBA basketball what Colonel Sanders has
been to the chicken community. We've gone out of the fire (ML Carr) but now we're
deep into the frying pan (Pitino). We've pretty much attained the crispy, golden
batter stage, yet we barely raise our voices in complaint.

How long would ML have lasted if his teams finished dead last in FG% allowed
during any season? C'mon, puh-lease.

You don't need a "shorty" (Fortson) or "fatso" (Antoine) to look totally retarded
trying to play Pitino's chicken outbreak at this level. Danny Fortson could help
our fastbreak if the coach had a clue. As long as the coach is here, Fortson will
instead at least make a useful scapegoat (even though we clearly established
ourselves as the NBA's worst defensive team long before Fortson and his 13 minutes
per game entered the equation).

Joe

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