Re: Bulpett: "Rick will Stick"

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> Maybe it's a bit of "Spintino", but RP informs Bulpett in today's Herald
> column that he turned down the Lakers job to coach the Celtics. That's
> news to me but I'll take his word for it.

Yeah, it's been reported before that Jerry West offered Pitino the
Lakers job but I think it was several years before Pitino took the
Celtics job. He went as far as to look at houses but his wife vetoed
the move, if I recall correctly.
 
> BTW, Pitino needs to talk with Fortson about his 7 minute night. There
> may be good reasons why Overton got three times as many minutes or
> Cheaney needed to be out there 42 minutes at forward contributing 4
> points. Pitinochio needs to simply explain all this to Fortson or that
> kid will look for a more realistic playing opportunity elsewhere at
> season's end. And if his game starts to regress a little from this stage
> on, I will also blame Pitino. You have to give Fortson a light at the
> end of the tunnel, or he will lose composure and not continue the
> (remarkably) good faith effort he has seemingly made to aggressively
> rebound and take solid, high percentage shots. When you start losing
> playing time off of your 12 per game average (and are only used against
> 7-0 backup centers), this kind of situation can't help but start to play
> with your head (especially if you are an unrestricted free agent with no
> financial security in the event of injury).

This obsession with Fortson's minutes and the idea that he's going to
leave is premature, at the very least. For instance, Cheaney is not
taking any minutes away from Fortson; they may both be forwards on
the roster but they are completely different players with completely
different roles. Antoine Walker was absolutely kicking butt at the
power forward position against Van Horn. Pitino was not going to put
in Fortson at PF and move Antoine to SF in that situation. At the same
time, he needed someone with more length to challenge the penetration
of the Nets, so he couldn't play Fortson at center for long either.
I recall Tommy being disappointed that Fortson didn't challenge Van
Horn on that one dunk he had late in the game, and Fortson came out
shortly after.

In short, this was a situation where playing Danny for much time just
wasn't the right decision, if the team wanted the best chance to win.
If Danny doesn't get his minutes but the Celtics win a big road game,
I'm happy with it and really he should be too, if he's a team player
(and all indications are that he is). He's even been quoted in the
media talking about his dyslexia and the fact that he's out of shape,
and that he doesn't want to hurt the team by being out there without
having the knowledge, repetitions, and conditioning to fit in. So maybe
he doesn't mind that he's not getting 30 minutes a night right away. 
Could it be that he's mature and unselfish enough that he's fine with
the situation? 

As far as the idea of him walking away is concerned, I doubt that
happens. There are usually very few teams with cap room at the end
of the season, and I doubt the three or four teams with sufficient
cap room to compete with any serious Celtics offer have Danny in
mind as their savior. Remember how Gary Trent at the end of his
breakout season wasn't getting any big offers? Danny's probably in
the same range. Unless he's willing to walk for the $2M exception,
he probably wants things to work out well with the Celtics. My guess
is that he does the same offseason work as Tony Battie (minicamps,
summer leagues, etc.) and the Celtics reward him with a decent sized
contract and more playing time next season. Of course a sign and trade
is another possibility if it looks like Fortson doesn't fit in with
what Pitino wants (in particular, if Walker is playing close to 40 
minutes at PF, it's not clear where his minutes are going to come from).

Alex