Re: Celtic's Preparation

[Dan Forant <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>]

If this team sours much more, it will take Larry, I didn't believe it at
first but he does have a gift for coaching. Is he really fed up with
basketball though?

>It strikes me as a weakness of Pitino's (and other coaches)
>micro-management style, where the players have loads of tiny bits of
>information poured into them before each games, which in theory should
>make them better prepared but doesn't always work out that way.  If a
>player spends too much time on the court thinking about which side of the
>floor Ron Harper shoots better from rather than playing solid positional
>defense his game suffers.
>
>I prefer the Celtics "old school" style of having a minimal set of plays,
>each with a few options, but being able to run them to perfection.  Not
>only is it less information for the players to remember, not only do they
>run the plays smoother, but with a general set of rules to guide them, it
>prepares them for almost any basketball situation they find themselves in,
>which makes preparation for the second game of a back-to-back situation
>much easier.  A few general guidelines for "playing tough defense" would
>come in more handy than "force Jason Williams right where he shoots 5.2%
>less than on the left side of the court", which is useless against
>everyone except Jason Williams.
>
>I think that's one of the reason's Bird has had so much success in
>Indiana.  Speaking of Bird, wouldn't it be awfully fun to have him
>coaching this team now?
>
>Dan
>
>