Re: Celtic's Preparation

[opi@unesco.org]

Larry will surely take a year off at least, but one day he will  realize he is
still a young man and that he misses the competition. I wouldn't mind a Larry
Bird "homecoming" in 2001.

One reason the Celtics seem to lose whenever they don't have "sufficient
preparation" is not because the players are less rested or conditioned, but
because they can't fall back on the most basic fundamentals that help team's
play consistent basketball even if you don't know anything about your opponent
that night.

Pitino ought to realize that basketball is a simple enough game compared to
what he and his 70  member coaching staff forcefeed his players. It's a bit
like having your kid take a cram class in theoretical physics or ancient latin
in order to prepare for the SATs. The Celts haved treaded water in their
development and have not shown they can consistently repeat and master the
"simple" plays like the less athletic Pacers, Jazz do or any Red Auerbach
coached team did.

Those are the kinds of teams that look at our Celtics and don't know whether to
laugh out loud or feel disgusted with us for achieving below our talent (like
Heinsohn). In some ways, ML Carr got as much of a consistent all-around game
out of Antoine Walker as the "great motivator" Pitino has so far accomplished.
I believe Toine had more triple-doubles as a rookie than any other year. Eric
Williams was certainly a more effective player as well.

Danny Fortson will get a lot of good advice to walk at the end of this year if
he remains stuck at backup center in Boston and still averaging 12.4 minutes
with Pitino still the head coach. Thus far he's shooting .750 from the field
and the equivalent of 12 ppg and 10rpg per 27 minutes. I think Pitino will/must
play him against people more his size (forwards) and keep him out there with
three or four fouls instead of yanking him. Not that Pitino should have rushed
Fortson back, but he should be aware that the kids pride and next contract are
at stake and that he probably feels he has the talent to contribute more than
12 minutes per game on a different team next season. Pitino needs to find
forward minutes for Fortson. Maybe the Griffin injury is one of those
"blessings in disguise", provided all the extra minutes don't go to Eric
Williams instead like they did in our rancid performance against the Bulls.

The 2-13 record includes losses to many of the worst home teams in the NBA. The
road schedule actually gets much harder from here (and longer). This is killing
any remotely realistic hope of the playoffs. At this pace, the Celtics need to
sweep their remaining games at the Fleet for a 36-5 record just to finish at
.500. If they win fully half of their remaining road games, they still have the
minus-11 game deficit to make up.

The win in Denver didn't turn out to be a turning point all the players and
Celts fans were hoping for, since they've lost two straight road games since
then. No doubt the coaching staff is blaming the players.


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Dan Forant wrote:

> 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
> >
> >