Re: Kenny missed

[damekmo@teleport.com]

>We suck in the post and have for years.

Let me repeat these words of wisdom from John.

>>We suck in the post and have for years.

Everybody wants to know how anybody on list could pick this team to win
fewer games this year than last? "We suck in the post and have for years."
If this team can't stop semi-half-assed players from dominating inside,
from 3-5 feet, they'll continue to lose more than they win. Semi-half-assed
big men have been killing this team for years. They continually have
"all-star" caliber games against the Celtics. Add a few real all-stars like
Allan Houston and you get close losses, blowouts, and "moral victories"
more than you'd like. Pots...Battie...Blount....just miserable. But they
aren't the only ones.

I know it sounds way too simple and obvious, but sometimes the problem is
just that. Everybody loves Adrian Griffin because he does all the little
things well. The problem is that this team simply needs more players who do
the "bigger" things well. I know...I'm an f'n genius. But a guy like Adrian
Griffin is the problem. It's not his fault that he's just another player
with very limited NBA skills on a team full of players with very limited
NBA skills, but he is. Everybody likes him...he works hard...he's a nice
guy...he's nice to his mother...but who cares? On a good/decent team he
helps to make a difference in the win column "sometimes," and that's giving
him the benefit of the doubt. But he still plays very limited minutes and
gets a whole lot more DNPCD's. In fact, 10 out of 12 of these guys play
very, very limited minutes every now and then on a decent playoff caliber
NBA team, or simply get waived after a laughable workout. You can mix and
match them any way you want; you can shuffle them in and out of the lineup
any way you want; you can put them into whatever defensive or offensive
schemes you want. It doesn't matter becasue 10 out of 12 guys simply have
limited NBA skills and that's not going to change. And I'm including Kenny
in that group of 10. Sure he's better than Brown and Brunson. Wow. This
team is a 30-something win team with Kenny, just as they're a 30-something
win team with Griffin, just as they're a 30-something win team with Herren
at the point. All half-assed. Perhaps Herren at least brings a little
energy to this half-assed lineup and they finish in the high 30's. "Way"
thinks you tank and hope for a wildly talented "big kid" in the draft.
Perhaps. Maybe you trade VP and Battie and Anderson and Griffin and any of
the mediocre ten for a real player or players. I'm beginning to think that
if that was possible it would've been done long ago. I just don't think any
of those guys has any trade value even if all you want out of the deal is a
first round draft pick. And if you're actually looking for a player with
more than limited NBA skills, that is, if you're looking for more than a
half-assed NBA talent who can make a difference, especially a big
man....that gm that just hung up on you is still laughing weeks later.
Ricky has three assets: Walker, Pierce, and draft picks. Everything else is
worthless. Garbage in, garbage out.

It's not "The Punk's" fault this year. It's not Pierce's fault. I don't
even believe it's "Ricky the Coach's" fault. Ricky the gm?

So how do you pick 32 wins when "this team is obviously more talented" this
year? Here's how: The first time they go on a 5-6-7-8-? game losing streak
Pitino starts talking about leaving, starts laying into his only two NBA
players in the Herald and Globe, especially "The Punk," and the team calls
it a season. Either that or he panics and trades either Walker or Pierce
and gets taken for a ride because every gm realizes he's desperate....not
to mention that he's been in way over his head as a gm from day 1. In any
case...the time to move any of his real assets for anything that would've
helped this year has come and gone.

32 wins guys. This team is "perhaps" better around the
edges....maybe....but it just doesn't make any difference.

Paul M.