Draft Speculation

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    I'm try to catch up to Mark Berry in the "record number of posts"
department (in my case more quantity than quality I guess) :-). I
similarly share his frustration about the lack of tangible news (that is
before Josh Ozersky's last post), but even if there were mucho rumblings
out of Pitino it would probably mean nothing. For someone known as such
a "summa cum loudmouth" Pitino rarely shows his actual hand, as I think
Alex Wang or others have noted in the past. The Mercer-Fortson trade was
a bit telegraphed in the final 24 hours, but other than that we've
generally all been caught off guard on every trade.

    In any case, here is my latest pointless/baseless draft speculation
of the day.  I believe the player MOST likely to unexpectedly tumble in
this draft is Florida's Mike Miller if he isn't picked up by Atlanta
(every draftnik treats this as a foregone conclusion but Atlanta might
grab the far more athletic and hyped high schooler Darius Miles).

    Basically you just don't hear any buzz at all about Miller right now
which is spooky and not unlike the Paul Pierce situation two years ago
(when it was a foregone conclusion he would go in the "top five").  In
fact, all you hear about Miller these days is somewhat negative or
neutral (his relative lack of defense, speed and size in that order).
There are no reports from the NBA clinics (which he and other "top five"
prospects skipped), no glowing reports from individual workouts, as
though he's not even available in the draft to the 28 teams other than
Atlanta. That could well be the case, but it might not be. I believe
Miller could fall down to the "Stevie Franchise and the Rockettes" at
nine, but Houston may have already made up its mind on another guy
(either DerMarr Johnson or Courtney Alexander) as will have Orlando (a
big point like Crawford) and Boston (Crawford or Moiso or Courtney
"Love" Alexander).

    I'm not saying we should draft him sight unseen, but I do think
Boston should bring Mike Miller in for a workout "just in case",  which
clearly is something they failed to do with Paul Pierce.

    Both Pierce and Miller are somewhat similar players in the
"five-average-tools" Havlicek mold. It wouldn't hurt at all for me as a
fan to see more smart fundamentals on the team, even if Miller on paper
further dillutes our size and athleticism.

    That said, frankly no one would be complaining about the Celtics
pathetic shortage of height or athleticism if "ideal" Pitino-ball
athletes like Waltah and Battie weren't such busts.

    I personally think we ought to head back in the direction of more
"old school" Cecil and Dorrine-era players in anticipation of a
seemingly inevitable change in regime from the current spazz-ball,
Pitino headless funky chicken charade.

    There are arguments in Pitino's favor, but in the "Celtics" favor we
can say without any hesitation that we didn't win ANY of our 16
championships as a consequence of accumulating only superior size (even
our huge 1986 frontline against the equally huge Houston frontline) and
superior athleticism through the draft (Russell granted was the most
athletic basketball player of his era but he was also short at 6-9
compared to his main rivals). Jerome Moiso (maybe the third or fourth
leading scorer on an erratic, underachieving team) is a perfect acid
test for how far Pitino has faith that his coaching and motivational
"genius" can cure the basic basketball stupidity of the athletes he
typically recruits.

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