Re: the words I've been waiting to hear

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    I think it is mainly the sheer embarrassment of being criticized
individually and openly on television, as opposed to gettting screamed at a
lot louder behind a closed locker room door. This is particularly tough for
Paul Pierce, who had in the past been beautified as a role model next to
Walker's evil incarnate. Who knows how "St Paulie Girl" will react to
Heinsohn singling him out like this, but at least last night whomever Pierce
may have spent time guarding got totally shut down (Murray, Harpring,
Langdon shot 5-21 combined). This is what can happen when your reputation
gets challenged. There is no reason from an athletic or instincts
perspective that Pierce can't become an excellent defensive player.

    As for the Celtics having zero talent, let's bear in mind that this team
has had five point guards get starter minutes in 14 games, including three
guys that weren't even on the opening day roster. And that doesn't include
point guard minutes forced onto Griffin and Walker. With due respect to Mark
Berry, the Celtics-Heat analogy is thought-proviking but isn't a perfectly
fair analogy IMO.

    Neither team has a franchise center, but that is where any analogy and
analysis of the position ends. The Heat don't start any player officially
listed over 6-9, because they can't start anyone over 6-9. In fact they have
only one player on the roster (two if you count Don Maclean) taller than
6-9. The only center they have played this year is Duane Causwell, and his
numbers in 13 games are 4.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg, .400FG%, .429FG%.

    In this sense, the Celtics are a much more typical NBA team. Like Jim
Mennino says, there just aren't that many teams that have a franchise
starting center. I don't think you can just compare the quality of the
supporting cast around our starting center, and then conclude we are an
inferior team to the center-less Heat and therefore a league basketcase.

     As noted before, the Celtics actually get better production (16ppg,
12.5 rpg, a nice 4.4 offensive rpg, a nice 2.4 blocks, better than .500FG%,
2.0 steals even, in 45.9 minutes) out of our two center rotation than most
teams. I think you have to factor that into the equation (namely that we are
actually well above average in production at all three frontcourt positions)
as to why we are .500 and for now playoff bound, despite a disastrous string
of injuries at the key point guard position.

    In general, I think we are so accustomed to bashing our centers that
there will be a time-lag before perceptions change that we have a pretty
decent young duo there (I said "pretty decent" not "great"). It took awhile
for people to drop most of  the knee-jerk criticisms of Walker. Rather than
making incomplete or unfair analogies, we should be asking questions like
"Would the Heat be interested in trading something for Vitaly, Battie". Or
are they satisfied with Causwell's numbers?

    Miami has a chance to come back and win the East if they can trade for
something better than the ridiculously bad production they have at center.
This could be a showcase opportunity for Boston, considering that we might
land a center in the next two drafts anyway and we have Blount and Moiso as
somewhat promising backups on the roster already.

    Frankly, my only fear is that whomever El Greaso trades for will turn
into a much better player and hard-nosed defender than they ever were under
Pitino. Over the years, the "Crisco Kid" has pursued a player personnel
strategy that isn't that different from Poultrino's, namely he's been forced
to pick up bargain basement guys like Bruce Bowen and Anthony Carter and
tried to turn them into useful bench players/spot starters. Miami has had
notoriously thin bench "on paper" over the past few years, filled with
flotsam and jetsam. The difference is that Riley turns these guys into what
the rest of league acknowledges as "smart", "hardnosed" players, while we
have so far turned ours into feathery, lightweight, oven-stuffer, headless
chickens. You just get different adjectives used for what seem on paper to
be similar, marginal NBA players in terms of talent and athleticism.

Joe


p.s. I want to say for the record than I'm feeling pretty upbeat about the
team because they have shown two or three times in the first month that they
are capable of playing not just adequate but great defense. I don't remember
seeing the Celtics demonstrate that ability in the past.  It is the type of
thing that changes my perspective on things and makes me finally very
optimistic, not that we are becoming a good team or will have a good season,
but rather that we at least have the talent to evolve into a heck of a good
team and make the system, or any system, work on the defensive end. This
wasn't at all clear before IMO.

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