still hoping...

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

It has been so quiet. We're really not going to go into next season with the
same team, plus the 11th pick in an uninspiring draft, are we? Please tell
me that's not what we're going to do.

Have to vent: This is to take nothing away from the Lakers, who really are a
nice, nice team, but does anyone else get frustrated watching the Blazers?
You know, I blame the decline of the NBA as we used to know it on Mike
Dunleavy. This guy took over the Lakers the year after Kareem retired-you
would think the perfect opportunity to REALLY unleash Showtime-and instead
began the Dunleavy-ization of the NBA. Suddenly the Lakers were walking the
ball up and trying to take advantage of the biggest size mismatch in the low
post every time down the floor. Sometimes it was Magic, others it was A.C.
Green. I hated the Lakers then and continue to hate the Lakers, but you had
to appreciate the beauty of Magic leading the break. Dunleavy took that
away.

Now, he's doing it again. The Blazers have Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith,
Rasheed Wallace, Arvydas Sabonis, Detlef Schrempf and Damon Stoudamire-a
pretty damn good collection of offensive players-and he's isolating Stacey
Augmon in the low post against Kobe Bryant, over and over. The Lakers rely
on Shaq and Kobe to play 48 minutes each. Their bench is thinner than my
hair. Their point guard is 40 years old. So what do the immensely talented,
deep Blazers do? They walk it up and post up Stacey Augmon. For crying out
loud, bring back Rick Adelman and turn these guys loose. Run, run, run,
until Shaq HAS to sit down for a rest. Jeez, it's not rocket science, is it?
I know many of you hate Pitino, but if Dunleavy is an example of the kind of
"NBA coach" you suggest, then I want nothing to do with it.

Mark