Re: Pitino-Gaston

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

At 08:16 AM 11/24/00 -0500, Dan Forant wrote:
>Don't believe everything you read. The Gaston Pitino show won't last once
>Gaston's purse begins to shrink and like the financial trends in the US
>things are moving down. The owner must be saying in private, what have I
>invested in? 

More fearless speculation/mind reading from "Dan's Psychic Hotline", just
like the one where he surmised that Doc Rivers didn't care about defense in
a preseason game that he didn't see! So we shouldn't believe everything we
read from reporters who actually talk to people but we should believe what
we read from Dan because... he's psychic! And it's free, not $3.99/minute!

You know, if I were cynically speculating, I would say that the Gaston
Pitino show is going to last at least as long as there's a load of
guaranteed money left on Pitino's contract. Even if Gaston's regretting his
investment, he's not exactly in a great position to do anything about it
right now. If he decides to turn sour on Pitino, Pitino could decide that
he's not leaving without getting fired.

The other, simpler possibility is that everything that has been
consistently been quoted from Gaston is actually the truth! I know, why
have any reporting when you can just make things up? Why believe what a guy
says when you can read his mind? But maybe he really does believe in
Pitino. Maybe he thinks that we'll turn it around this year. Stranger
things have happened... like Mark Cuban giving Don Nelson a ten year
extension.

>A must win tonite against Orlando without Hill. Celts by 12.

This is where I hope that Dan really does have psychic powers. And he's
absolutely right, it's as close to a must win as you can get this early in
the season. A home game against a struggling competitor while they're
missing a very big piece.

But even with Hill out, I think that 4-8 is definitely not the record that
you'd expect from this team under the reigning Coach of the Year. They've
only won against Washington, Atlanta, Seattle, and Golden State in OT --
not an impressive group. On the other hand, like the Celtics, their losses
have come against strong teams, with the notable exception of Chicago. I
look at the roster even with Hill out and I would say it is stronger than
their roster last year and stronger than the Celtics roster three years
ago. There's still plenty of time for them to turn it around, especially if
Hill recovers, but it seems like Doc Rivers is looking like less of a
genius the second time around -- much like Pitino did.

Orlando is led in scoring by McGrady (22.5 ppg), Armstrong (15.8 ppg), and
Amaechi (11.0 ppg). Recently they've been going big by also starting Doleac
and Outlaw. Last year they would go early to Amaechi, who would burn
Potapenko and force us to double team inside. Hopefully Battie can hold his
own here. I don't know how McGrady fits into their offense as the primary
weapon but it seemed in previous years that sagging off to prevent a drive
would entice him to take jump shots, which weren't his strength. He seems
to be advancing at a phenomenal rate though, so I don't know what we'd do
here. He's a tough matchup for anyone on our team because of his length and
freaky athleticism.

I think what you can say about this team in general is that they are not
great outside shooters. They want to create a lot of turnovers, run a lot,
and hit the offensive boards, much like a Pitino type team. It should be
interesting to see whether we stick with the same strategy.

Alex

Alex