RE: [Celtic_Pride] Re: Interesting notes from Mitch Lawrence

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

I agree Jim that Pitino has to be held responsible. The buck stops with him.
I guess my point was that another coach isn't going to wave a magic wand and
make this a winning team. Pitino has to go, but the players need to change
as well. Do you think Pierce, Antoine and Kenny compare favorably to Jones,
Grant and Hardaway? I don't. The three guys from Miami are two-way players.
They can beat you offensively and defensively. Not our guys. I think we both
agree that championship level teams need a superstar--be it Mourning, Shaq,
Duncan, Garnett or whoever. We don't have one, and we're not nearly as close
to one as some think.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Meninno [mailto:jim_meninno@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 4:55 PM
To: celtics; celtic_pride@egroups.com
Subject: [Celtic_Pride] Re: Interesting notes from Mitch Lawrence


  ---- Original Message ----- From: Berry, Mark S 

  Good stuff from ESPN's Mitch Lawrence today. He touches on Miami's
struggles without Mourning (they have Brian Grant, Eddie Jones, Anthony
Mason and Tim Hardaway, along with the best coach in the business, but
they're lousy without the big guy). We all should pay attention to that when
talking about
  how great our players would be for another coach. If the group Riley has
can't get it done for him, do you really think Toine, Pierce and the rest
could?
Couldn't you spin it the other way and say this means that Antoine, Paul and
Kenny would look pretty damn good playing next to someone like Alonzo
Mourning?  There are very few *dominant* players in the NBA right now.
Shaq, Mourning, Garnett.  I'm not sure Duncan even makes it into that group.
These are guys who can turn any team into a playoff team by themselves.  I'm
not going to fault our players for not being of that caliber.  I'm not going
to assume that Antoine and/or Paul are that talented that the only thing
keeping them from that kind of dominance is their desire/work
ethic/selflessness/whatever.  They are talented, but maybe not THAT
talented.

The bottom line is that we have absolutely no idea exactly how good these
guys have the ability to be. We haven't seen them play on any other pro
teams, with any other players.  If I read you right, you are saying that
there's no point talking about another coach until you get new players.
What I am saying is that Pitino has made this very easy.  He is in charge of
everything.  He acquires players.  He decides on the strategy to use and he
implements it.  If this team is not successful, there is one person to
blame.  Will the next coach/gm/president (however many people that is going
to be) want to keep these players?  Why don't we at least give them the
option?  Personally, I thought that 3 years was enough for Rick to prove
himself, and he failed.  Keeping him for this year is being generous, and I
really hope he takes advantage of the opportunity and turns the team around.
At the end of this year, though, it is time to stop fooling around. Just
like the year that Pitino was hired, 
   this year's draft and 

Jim

P.S. The little wake-up call this list got a few weeks ago has done wonders.
The big difference has been that we are hearing from a lot of people we
weren't hearing from before.  We're not just hearing the same old opinions,
from the same people (like myself), over and over again.  Keep it up
everyone!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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