Re: Houston, we have a problem?

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

Personally, I'm glad that this trade will never
happen.
I think the world of Allan Houston, and agree that he
is a real force in the NBA; as a shooting guard, I
would say he is better than Ray Allen or Paul Pierce,
and probably a better pure shooter than any 2 guard in
the league, now that Reggie Miller is in the twilight
of his career.  He's a real machine, but he's not the
kind of player you can build around the way you can
with Twon. Twon's passing is the key to all of this. 
To me, the best part of the situation the Celtics have
is that we have a player like Houston, a solid,
clutch, money in the bank scorer for the closing
minutes of the game in Paul Pierce (who is much better
now than Houston was at this stage in his career.) 
But as you say, you need to look at the big picture.
Twon is not in fact the guy you would pick for one on
one.  Houston is.  But Twon does all the other things
that make winning possible (when he is playing well.) 
Houston is essentially a one-dimensional player, and I
would rather have a Versatile player Twon or Chris
Mullin or Tom Gugliotta than a functionary like a
World B. Free or an Allen Houston.  Add to this Twon's
undeniable scoring punch (he did once drop 49 points
on Chris Webber) and the fact that Houston is a
finished product while Twon is a work in progress, and
I think the trade would be a big mistake.  You can get
a good scoring guard in the draft (DerMarr Johnson,
Courtney Alexander, Corey Maggette, etc. etc.) but
talents like Twon are rare indeed, which is why Pitino
for all his fuming has never traded him.  



--- Thomas Murphy <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> >     I like Allan Houston a lot because he's
> strong, he's tough, he's
> playoff
> > hardened and he's clutch. But one thing that
> always surprised me about him
> > though, is that his key non-scoring stats
> (assists, rebounding and steals)
> are
> > pretty prosaic by starting NBA shooting standards.
> To wit, he averaged
> just 2.7
> > assists, 3.3 boards, 0.79 steals last season in a
> whopping 38.6 minutes
> per
> > game. All three numbers were actually considerably
> above his career
> averages.
> > This apparent lack of well-roundedness compares
> less with his fellow Y2K
> Dream
> > Teamers than with the bottom half of starting NBA
> shooting guards last
> year.
> 
> Hey Joe,
> 
> You raise a very interesting point. I've had to
> ponder this question a
> while. Thanks for raising this question and in
> answering it I'll also
> explain why I think Houston for Walker actually
> favors the Cs.
> 
> Certainly, Twon is more versatile than most players
> out there. (If I were
> preparing to play a game of two-on-two I'd want
> Twon, 'cause he could do all
> the things I can't!)
> 
> But you have to stop and think about how his talents
> mesh on a team with
> four other players. I don't mean this as a knock,
> just an honest question
> about whether it might be better to have either: a)
> one player who can do
> many things fairly well, or b) another player who
> can do one thing
> outstandingly well. Obviously, we'd all much rather
> have one player who can
> do many things outstandingly well, "but Larry Bird
> is not going to walk
> through that door. . ." ;?)
> 
> Twon can dribble, rebound, score and pass fairly
> well (sorry to disagree
> with Michael Griffin but as impressive as this is,
> it simply is not good
> enough for "top 5" in my book) but he is not
> exceptional in any one area
> (unless measured against other PFs, and even then
> only in his ballhandling -
> but then who needs your PF to bring up the ball?).
> Houston can shoot, score,
> and shoot some more. He can also take your last
> shot, something that I'm not
> that confident having Twon do.
> 
> Who is the better player? Twon is the more well
> rounded, but Houston is more
> polished. If Bball were simply a game of one-on-one
> then it would be easy:
> Twon is your man.
> 
> But on a team of five players the question is not
> necessarily so easy -
> Bball is a team sport so when we analyze a player's
> skills we have to take
> into account that there will be others on the team
> that can compensate for
> certain "deficiencies" (excepting perhaps defense).
> Under such circumstances
> the better player is usually the one who has one
> exceptional skill rather
> than several above-average skills. (This is
> especially true in the NBA since
> the players have a much higher level of over-all
> skills in general).
> 
> Here's an analogy that makes sense for me: would you
> trade several
> above-average players for one exceptional player?
> Most people would, because
> that one exceptional is more difficult to replace
> than the number of
> above-average players.
> 
> Stated another way: you have ask yourself if you
> really need one player to
> do all those things Twon can do for you fairly well
> OR would you be better
> off taking other players' abilities into account and
> having several players,
> each with a specialty. For example: if we were to
> evaluate a swap of Twon
> for Houston we have to evaluate the trade not simply
> as one player with
> several above average skills for another with only
> one exceptional skill.
> This is true of course (and enough in my mind to
> justify the trade - for the
> basic reason that - IMHO - Houston is simply a
> better SG than Twon is PF),
> but it is not the whole story.
> 
> We should also think in terms of the overall team
> impact. Yes, Houston
> cannot duplicate Twon's rebounding. But which is
> more difficult to replace -
> Twon's above-average rebounding or Houston's
> excellent shooting? If such a
> swap occurred we should then be able to retain
> Fortson for rebounding
> (another player with one really exceptional skill).
> Houston can shoot/score
> better than Twon, Fortson can rebound better than
> Twon, Childs can dribble
> and pass better than Twon. . . you get the picture.
> (BTW, FWIW I only saw
> Childs as a temporary stop-gap - his one great
> advantage over Ward is the
> relative shortness of his contract). Each of Twon's
> above-average
> multi-tasking skills is easier to replace than
> Houston's excellent shooting
> simply because Houston is a much more polished
> shooter/scorer than Twon is
> rebounder or scorer or dribbler or passer etc.
> 
> Note that this analysis doesn't even begin to
> address the harder to quantify
> aspects of Bball such as defense, leadership or
> "referee rapport".
> 
> So while I agree with you Joe that multiskilled
> players are to be
> preferred - if all things are equal - in this
> situation all things are not
> equal. Sure, we'd all like Houston to have better
> numbers in those areas you
> cited. Regardless, none of Twon's skills are as
> polished as Houston's one
> skill and that alone makes Houston a more valuable
> NBA commodity. (Yes, Twon
> has more potential, a key to NY making such a deal,
> but as a friend of mine
> likes to say "you can't eat potential"). I think
> this is yet one more
> difference between the NBA and college that Pitino
> has yet to clue in on -
> the value of specialization in a league where each
> and every player has a
> much higher baseline of skills than one finds in
> college.
> 
> Add to the above analysis the sore need that Boston
> has for shooting and I
> think the deal looks even better. Shooting seems to
> be one skill that some
> people are born with and others not. As much as Twon
> or Jason Kidd or Bo
> Outlaw practice they will never have the stroke of
> natural shooters like
> Bird or Rice or Houston. It really seems to be one
> skill that is hard to
> develop beyond a certain point. The Cs currently
> don't really have a shooter
> (Pierce is really much better mixing it up). Also
> realize that Houston has
> never really been able to fully demonstrate his
> scoring abilities in the
> pros as he would here in Boston. He's always had to
> play second-fiddle to
> someone - Grant Hill, Ewing - and even when Ewing
> was out injured he had to
> contend with Sprewell. Here, I suspect that he'd be
> able to fully exploit
> his offensive skills, with Pierce and V as valuable
> offensive contributors
> rather than competitors.
> 
> Houston would not only bring an exceptional ability
> in an area in which we
> are sorely lacking, he would enable two other
> players to return to their
> natural positions (Pierce and Fortson/Battie). This
> would go a long way to
> getting people back to doing what they do best
> rather than having them try
> (and fail) to do something for which they are not
> well suited - a key reason
> why I believe this team "underachieved" relative to
> their 
=== message truncated ===


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