Fortson

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is how Pitino has been making an
effort to get Fortson minutes at the power forward position recently,
playing him alongside Potapenko (and Battie, I think, but I'm not
sure), even prior to last night's game when he started at PF. I didn't
catch all of the Miami game, so can someone confirm whether he played all
of his minutes at forward? 

Anyways, Danny's only been back a month after a pretty serious injury
so I think it's too early to get too pessimistic here. Pitino has been
trying to get him PF minutes, even at Antoine's expense, which
indicates to me that he hasn't given up on Fortson yet. I'd expect (in
the absense of a can't refuse trade offer) that Fortson stays with the
team, gives a great effort during all of the summer camps, learns the
system, and gets his contract extension. I don't see the Celtics
dumping him out of desperation because I can't imagine him getting
much more than the $2M exception if he walks. Pitino will explain to
him that it was tough to integrate him into the lineup midseason when
he wasn't 100% and the team was clawing for a playoff spot, but if he
puts in the work during the offseason he'll be a starter.

Alex