Re: from BSG's reader board

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

    Prissybyla is I guess quite under-accomplished historically speaking for a
number three pick and I can't like him for his big whiteboy on campus attitude
but no question he poses more hunger, anger and defensive threat than Mihm
albeit a nothc below in sure potential with the "big two" (Martin and Swift).
He's a huge guy compared to McHale at a similar stage and it's hard to believe
he wouldn't set a similar Big Ten legacy swatting shots and scoring elegantly as
a Junior or Senior if he chose to stay. But instead he quit on his entire team
mid-season because he thought he was bigger than his coach and shouldn't
occasionally attend classes. And I guess if you are foregoing millions of
dollars to play the arguable charade of college basketball, you almost have a
right to be a total dink. You'd be selling yourself short if you weren't totally
and comically full of yourself.

    No question IMHO if that is the top three draft order (Martin, Swift,
Prissy), than Swift for athleticsm and seriously hyped potential and Martin for
guts to go with talent are far more valuable picks than Prissy-boy.

    Of course Josh you've known my views from this list long enough to know that
any opinion I make about the NBA draft is generally wrong. I read Steve
Franchise as a risky pick (too short to be too shoot-first in mentality and vice
versa). I also read Lamarr Odom as too risky a flake. In sum, I underrated the
entire 1999 draft.

    So I actually realize I'm making up things as I go along, being a continent
away from the real action and basing my judgement on the Internet. That's why I
value the views of this list a lot more than I let on, even including "Way"
(although I'm not convinced he's even seen the big "OO" play more than once in
his life and against US highschoolers at that). Overall, none of us are all that
competent to even judge the judgement of Rick Pitino and Chris Wallace. If they
say so, then we are probably more likely to be wrong on Moiso or Courtney Cox
Alexander as they are. In the end I actually trust these guys to do a massive,
neurotic amount of film watching and secret workouts and view list speculation
as a collective indulgence on each of our parts. This is not a rocket science
and it is hugely subjective, but these guys have a lot more useful and genuine
info to parse through than we do and they deservedly get paid for their past
accomplishments while we aren't held accountable.

    Based on the sample of drafts over the past twenty years, the Celts have a
slightly better than 20% chance of finding an All Star at number 11 and a
similar chance of drafting a bust. So much is at stake at this fragile stage of
"rebuilding" so we can only hope that things work out beautifully for our
historically blessed team.

    For the record, my views (I heartily recommend you take a contrarian view)
are that Courtney Love can readily leapfrog everyone to make first team All
Rookie (but likely on a non-playoff team) and is the safest sure-thing in the
draft in the Stackhouse/Rider sense, Moiso will be a noticeable "bust" in his
first year just as Keon Clark was but still have a long and positive NBA career
under perfect circumstances and can also help Antoine get hooked on that
high-cholesterol-yet- low-weightgain-tres-sexy French diet, Miller will probably
prove to be the next Mike O'Koren for Atlanta (not bad, not good) but could
leave a Majerle or even Havlicek NBA legacy with the ideal coaching and
attitude,  Darius Miles won't end up the best player in his prep class (MSU's
Zach Randolph or Seton's Eddie Griffin probably will be), Crawford might take
awhile and might not work out in the end but could be a reasonable Penny
Hardaway type for Orlando, Mihm will be another of the five NBA-ready rookie
first teamer but will probably have a forgettable Mike Gminski/Big Country type
NBA career, Ken Martin is far too intense and too small and will thus likely get
injured again trying to make his NBA impact trying to be a shorter Alonzo (but I
wish he were a Boston Celtic and I'll root for him), Pryzbilla is basically an
uncoachable, low-IQ hick but he'll stay really good and reasonably productive
the way the journeyman NFL quarterback Jeff George is. As much as we admire
their talent and athleticism (I truly do), I don't think we can even begin to
imagine the basically corrosive impact of suckass agents and hangerson these
basically nincompoop guys are constantly surrounded with these days. Even
"celebrities" that we ignore or never notice are getting enough daily public
attention and pampering to feel they have made it and don't need to do much
more. It is that factor as much as anything --apart from injuries--that makes it
nearly impossible to guess  which kids will rise to true stardom based on their
basically indistinguishable overall talent/heart/college-productivity/potential
quotient. Enough blah, blah. Time to head home and watch these European Football
championships (Italy tonight baby!), which is an otherwise superior spectator
sport in all ways but with a far too massive built-in incentive to cheat and
fake fouls. If only Johnnie Most were a soccer announcer! And if FIFA allowed
instant replay so refs could give yellow cards to everyone who fakes a foul
(maybe red card in the penalty zone), the sport would have so much more
integrity/credibility. What a no-brainer if you ask me.

----------

OzerskyJA wrote:

> These are good points.  But I am scared of Moiso.  There's so many of these
> skinny big men now, and so few make any kind of impact as rookies.  Look at
> Keon Clark, whom the Celtics said had a workout
> "you would have paid to see."  Very few of these guys pan out.  And
> this guy doesn't seem to have any of the intangibles that the good ones
> do.  I'll take Alexander/Crawford.  Given the choice, I would take
> Crawford, just because I love big point guards/combo guards.  Alexander
> definitely has a whiff of Mercer about him, although maybe
> he's not so dependent on screens to get his shot off.  What ever happend
> to our love affair with "OO?"  He seems like a more exciting big man
> prospect
> that Moiso.
>
> and if we traded up to the third spot somehow, I wouldn't take Przbilla -- I
> would
> package the denver pick to get Swift/Martin at two.   Or maybe trade down
> for Johnson and a veteran.  Ah, draft week!
>
> Josh Ozersky
> Marketing Communications Specialist
> Corning Museum of Glass