BSG's Dirgeful Celtics Chronicles

[wayray@ix.netcom.com]

Very well written and sobering....

http://home.digitalcity.com/boston/sportsguy/main.dci?page=2celts01

CELTICS CHRONICLES
(updated 11/29)



At dinner with my father last night, we decided that Rick Pitino's
ludicrous
"Either they start playing defense or I'm going to leave after the
season"
press conference last Wednesday served as the final straw for both of
us. We
wanted him gone. And we discussed how disappointing it was, how hopes
had
been so high in the beginning, how they slowly gave way to a "Hmmmmm"
feeling, followed by a "Um, does this guy know what he's doing?"
feeling,
which eventually gave way to "Oh, Christ, he doesn't know what he's
doing,"
and how those initial high hopes were finally replaced by our current
emotions, all which begin with the letter "D."

Disgust. Dismay. Disappointment. Disbelief.

 Never in my wildest dreams did we think it would turn out this badly.
Think
back to the summer of '97, when the Celts chose Billups and Mercer with
the
3rd/6th picks and Pitino stood on the podium proclaiming them his
"backcourt
for the next ten years"... and we found out the next morning how he
tried to
trade those picks to Chicago before the draft for Pippen and Longley. We
should have known -- right then, right THEN --- that the guy was full of
s**t. And he kept dropping subtle hints along the way.

Take that draft. Remember who Pitino was pining for with that #3 pick in
the
weeks before the lottery? Raef LaFrentz. He kept dropping subtle hints
that
he wanted LaFrentz to come out to insure that the Celts would get a
proven
star-in-the-making with their top-three pick... and LaFrentz lost his
job to
Keon Clark last week. And don't forget that the Celtics passed on Tracy
McGrady - currently a superstar-in-the-making -- not once but twice
because
Pitino "didn't believe in taking high schoolers at the time." Coach P
was so
damned busy whining about not getting Tim Duncan or Keith Van Horn that
he
ignored McGrady's considerable potential.

(When you think about it, McGrady would have been the Auerbachian move
there. Again, we didn't know this at the time... but for $50 million,
Pitino
was being paid to make savvy moves, wasn't he?)

As for the rest of that first summer, there was the Triple Threat
signing of
Tony Massenburg, Bruce Bowen and Andrew DeClerq, three role players who
never really panned out. Then Team Pitino renounced the rights to David
Wesley and Rick Fox and bought out Dino Radja's deal so they could sign
Travis Knight and Chris Mills. I actually liked the Knight signing at
the
time because he had shown promise with the Lakers; the Mills signing
made
less sense because of the money involved (something like $26 million
over
six years) and because Mills didn't bring much more to the table than
Fox.

And that's when the first whispers started. "Hmmmmmmmm." I remember
Peter
May, Peter Vescey and Dave D'Alessandro all wrote pieces slamming Pitino
with "He doesn't know what he's doing" quotes attributed to unnamed
executives. The whispers grew louder when he gave up on Mills before the
'97
season even started, dealing him to the Knicks for Walter McCarty, John
Thomas and Dontae Jones. Three stiffs, as it turned out. Then he gave up
on
Chauncey Billups after 50 games and packaged him with Dee Brown to
Toronto
for Kenny Anderson and Popeye Jones -- a shortsighted, disastrous trade
which will haunt this team through 2003.

The whispers grew louder. Portland had dumped Anderson to Toronto
because
his skills were slipping and they weren't convinced he could contribute
on a
championship team... why would the Celtics want to fork up $38
million-plus
over the next five seasons for someone like that? I blindly defended the
deal at the time, thinking that Anderson would make Walker and Mercer
better
players. Little did I know. But as the whispers grew louder and we
watched
Anderson limping along during the final month of that season on a gimpy
knee, I felt that "Hmmmmmm" feeling for the first time. Pitino thought
he
was trading for the Georgia Tech version of Kenny Anderson; it was the
type
of trade executives make when they haven't been around the league long
enough.

And it continued over the next two seasons, little signs that Pitino
didn't
know the pro game. He handed McCarty a three-year, $8 million contract
extension. He signed Popeye Jones and his bum knee for three years. He
gave
Dwayne Schintzius a two-year deal instead of an entry form to the Ivan
Drago
Lookalike contest. He eagerly pursued free agent center Michael Stewart,
currently a salary cap albatross in Toronto. Glen Ordway started
hammering
him on WEEI, saying Pitino didn't know what he was doing, that it was
obvious... and I remember driving home one afternoon and getting mad at
Ordway -- really, REALLY mad -- and suddenly I realized that these
comments
were hitting too close to home, that I held the same doubts, that maybe,
just maybe, Pitino didn't know what he was doing.

But I kept defending him. Team Pitino loved Dirk Nowitzki in the '98
Draft
before drafting Pierce, and it seemed at the time that Nowitzki had star
potential. That was a good sign. They didn't screw up the Pierce pick at
#10; that was a good sign. Dumping Knight to the Lakers for Tony Battie
was
a sweet move. And when they swapped DeClerq and the #8 pick to Cleveland
for
project center Vitaly Potapenko -- a sorely-needed widebody -- I
defended
that too.

In retrospect, that was the most damaging move Pitino made, worse than
passing up Tracy McGrady in the '97 Draft, worse than failing to re-sign
David Wesley -- a decent point guard and a great defensive player -- for
a
contract that would have been half the money that Kenny Anderson makes,
worse than the Mills/Knight fiasco, even worse than the Anderson trade.
The
Potapenko trade killed this team, for two reasons:

1. They signed Potapenko to a six-year, $33 million extension without
knowing if he would evolve into a legitimate starting center. As it
turns
out, he's mediocre - a step up from Eric Montross and Jahidi White, but
a
step down from that Antonio Davis-type class. He's just perennially
snakebitten, the kind of player who always seems to miss five-footers
and
take three-second calls at the wrong times. There's just something
missing
with him. I can't even define it... you just know it's missing. He's a
great
backup center, but at that pricetag? Come on.

2. They didn't give full lottery protection to that #1 pick in the '99
Draft... and it ended up being the eighth pick overall. Just a murder. I
mean, EVERYONE protects draft picks in trades. That's just how it's
done. At
the time, the Celts claimed Cleveland wouldn't make that trade if the
pick
was protected. Hey, that's fine. Then Team Pitino should have sat down
and
examined the draft prospects and said, "You know what? There's a chance
we'll be in the Top Ten, and there's a chance a real nugget might fall
into
that 8-to-10 range, just like Pierce fell to us last season."

3. The usual suspects -- reporters, broadcast people and unnamed
executives -- were killing the Potapenko trade when it happened. Usually
I
ignore that stuff, but it happened so much during Pitino's regime in the
first two years that I finally advanced to the "Um, does this guy know
what
he's doing?" stage.

(Looking back, you make that Potapenko trade if you're a fringe playoff
team
looking to bump yourselves to the next level, not if you're a lottery
team
looking to shake things up. Terrible trade. Just brutal. And I defended
it
at the time, but only because I thought Potapenko had more UPPPPPPPside.
He
doesn't. He's a more polished Jahidi White.)

So that's that. Of course, we didn't know at the time that Andre Miller
and
Shawn Marion would be sitting there at #8 three months later. We didn't
know
Miller would turn into a potential star (please note: he's not even
close
yet) and we especially didn't know that Marion would emerge two years
later
as the best young small forward in basketball.

I'll repeat that: Shawn Marion is the best young small forward in
basketball. Watch his box scores for a week. Better yet, check him out
if
you have a DSS -- he's doing things at the 3-spot that nobody's done
since
Dr. J was playing in the ABA. The dude tossed up a 19/19 two weeks ago.
Nineteen rebounds from the small forward spot? ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
He's
also the best defensive player in the league at the 2/3 spot -- he
guards
everyone from Kobe Bryant to Rasheed Wallace with arms that look like
octopus tentacles. And he scores and runs the floor. Other than that,
he's
not very good.

(Contrary to public belief, Celts GM Chris Wallace once stated that
Marion
would have been the pick at #8 had the Celts stayed put. As far as I'm
concerned, losing out on a player like Marion is #3 on the All-Time
Celtics
Tragedy List, right behind Reggie and Bias. If you don't believe me,
watch
him play some time. And yet I digress...)

Back to Coach P: He moved Mercer and Popeye in the summer of '99 for
Danny
Fortson, Eric Williams and a future #1. Not a bad deal, except for the
fact
that Eric Williams represents yet another cap killer ($4 million-plus
per
year thru 2004) and Danny Fortson only plays power forward... the same
position where you have Antoine Walker playing 40 minutes a game. Uh-oh.
It
took Team Pitino half the season to figure that out, then another month
to
decide they needed to move Fortson -- who was sulking on the bench, and
yes,
they should have checked into the fact that Danny was a head case -- and
then it happened...

Fortson for Alvin Williams. The day the wheels came off.

And we finally knew.

"Oh, Christ, he doesn't know what he's doing."

The Celts weaseled out of the trade with that bogus "Williams failed his
physical" charade, but we knew they were just saving face. No sane NBA
executive would ever trade Danny Fortson (a proven rebounder who can
help
the right team) straight-up for Alvin Williams (a bogus point guard who
couldn't even beat out Muggsy Bogues for minutes in Toronto). How could
we
know that and Team Pitino didn't? Public reaction was so brutal that
they
actually cancelled the trade. Doesn't get much worse than that.

Things didn't improve much this summer. I didn't mind the Randy Brown
signing, although he always gets injured and it's a waste of everyone's
time
to have a "Sometimes he plays, sometimes he's injured" guy on a .500
team.
They parlayed Fortson, Barros and Cal Cheaney into Chris Herren and
Bryant
Stith -- two nice role players who haven't proven they can remain
healthy
for 40 games, much less 82. Not a bad trade... but remember, they wanted
to
move Fortson in a three-way sign-and-trade for Tariq Abdul-Wahad, who
they
would have signed for $40 million. Forty million? Have you checked the
papers lately? Abdul's already been benched in Denver and it's not even
December yet! Finally, the Celts drafted a forward at #11 (Jerome Moiso)
who
won't help them this season and may never help them; he's beyond lost,
as I
detailed two weeks ago.

So after three-plus years, here's the list of guys that Team Pitino
flat-out
misjudged:

--Billups (wasn't a point guard).
--Billups, part two (they still gave up on him too early)
--Bowen (couldn't shoot).
--McGrady (the ballsy pick in '97)
--Mercer (should have taken McGrady)
--Wesley (better than anyone else Pitino's had).
--Fox (gave them just as much as Mills did).
--Tyus Edney (stiff)
--LaFrentz, Van Horn (neither have been as good as he thought)
--Battie, part one (overpaid at $24 million for six years)
--Mills (overpaid, wrong guy at the wrong time)
--Knight (overpaid, a stiff)
--A. Williams (yikes)
--Stewart (a stiff)
--Popeye (idiotic contract extension for a guy with a bum knee)
--Anderson (a catastrophic mistake on every level)
--Moiso (you don't draft a 22-year-old "project" in the NBA these days)
--Potapenko (overpaid, gave up WAY too much for him)
--McCarty (overpaid, has no discernable basketball talent whatsover).
--Fortson (wrong guy at the wrong time)
--E. Williams (wildly overpaid)
--Abdul-Wahad (could have been disaster)
--Chris Wallace (remember how we gave up a 2nd-round pick for him?)
--Stewart (ditto)
--Schintzius (embarrassing)

Here's a list of guys that Team Pitino judged well:

--Walker (made the right move in keeping him)
--Pierce (managed not to screw up that pick at #10)
--Battie, part one (getting him for Knight was a good move)
--Nowitzki (they wanted him at #10, even over Pierce)

The jury's still out on these guys:

--Stith (let's see him play 50 games)
--Brown (ditto)
--Herren (let's see him keep his nose clean)

And that's it. That's the basketball expertise that Paul Gaston acquired
for
$50 million.

Disgust. Dismay. Disappointment. Disbelief.


***** ***** ****** ***** *****

A few more thoughts before I let you go...

*****
My favorite part of that press conference last week happened when Pitino
claimed that, if he left the Celtics after the season, he would be
leaving
the Celtics in terrific shape with a talented young roster and three
premium
draft picks next June. Let's see... Anderson, Williams, Battie and
Potapenko
will earn nearly $70 million combined over this season and the next two.
Pierce could bolt after next season if things don't improve. The team is
below-average defensively at every position. They don't have a franchise
player on the roster. And they lack the salary cap room to pursue a
marquee
free agent until after the 2003 season. That's good shape?

(My other favorite part of the press conference came when Pitino said
that
the players were playing hard for him. Obviously he blocked the Philly
game
out of his mind. I was there - the players quit on him and stopped
hustling.
In fact, there have been SIX different games this season when the
Celtics
have fallen behind by 20 points or more, always a red flag for the "Are
the
players quitting on the coach?" question.)

*****
So who leaked the story that Pitino threatened to quit? Pitino intimated
that it came from the locker room, but that makes no sense because Will
McDonough is 120 years-old. Do you think Adrian Griffin told him while
they
were getting coffee together on Tuesday? Come on. He's probably never
even
talked to any of the players. I have a sinking suspicion that someone on
the
Gaston side of Celtics management -- like Gaston or even Red Auerbach --
heard the story through the grapevine, then leaked it to McDonough to
get
the ball rolling on Pitino's resignation (so they can avoid buying him
out).

If you watched the Cleveland game last night, you know Pitino hasn't
quit on
this team yet because you could hear him screaming things all game. And
maybe that's part of the problem.

*****
That reminds me, it's not a surprise that the C's won last night because
two
things happened that usually don't happen in a Celtics game:

1. They didn't press.
2. Antoine played point guard.

The press has been killing them for three years running -- it wears out
the
players, it forces you to play 10-11 guys per night, it yields too many
layups and it just doesn't work unless you have Kevin Garnett, Tim
Duncan or
the young Patrick Ewing anchoring the back end. It's a gimmick that
should
only be broken out when you fall behind by twenty. In college, it works
because so many teams have shaky ballhandlers. In the pros, everyone can
handle the ball.

For instance, in the Philly game, Allen Iverson and Eric Snow looked
like
they were running a press-breaking drill in the first half. Why would
you
want to press those guys and put somebody like Iverson in the open court
at
full speed? It's short-sighted AND suicidal, especially in an 82-game
season. Teams win in the NBA with defense by hustling, double-teaming
and
over-playing the passing lanes in half-court -- like Philly this season
and
Orlando last year -- not with a full-court press.

As for Antoine playing the point, as I've been writing for three years
running, doesn't it make more sense for him to bring the ball up than
for
Doug Overton or an injured Chris Herren to play 40 minutes a game? Half
the
time Antoine's bringing the ball up offensively anyway; why not just
move
him to point for 20-25 minutes a game and see what happens? Every time
he
plays point guard, he makes a concerted effort to push the ball up, look
inside and move the ball around the perimeter. THAT'S WHAT WE WANT HIM
DOING!!!!!

Teams preparing for Boston are probably terrified that Antoine made the
move. For instance, what will Milwaukee do tomorrow night if Walker's
playing point? Who does Sam Cassell guard? Either Stith, Williams and
Pierce
can all post Cassell up with Walker playing point... that means the
Bucks
will use Walker's man to double-team Cassell's man, which means Walker
will
get open looks all game if the ball is reversed properly (I sound like
Coach
P!). Seriously, that's what basketball is all about - creating
mismatches
and making opponents adjust to what you're doing. And teams don't have
to
adjust for Doug Overton and Randy Brown.

It all comes back to the age-old axiom, "When in doubt in basketball,
just
play your best five guys." Right now, the best five guys on the Celts
are
Walker, Pierce, Battie, Williams and Stith, with Potapenko, Brown and
maybe
Chris Carr spotting them off the bench. By removing the press, Walker
and
Pierce can play 42-44 minutes a night and stay reasonably fresh. As I've
said over and over again, this isn't rocket science.

*****
Speaking of Walker, you may not realize it or appreciate it, but Antoine
Walker is playing the best basketball of his career. Look at his numbers
this season:

Year   G   FG%   FT%  3P%   RB  AST  TO    PTS
96-97 82  .425   .631   .327    9.0   3.2   2.8   17.5
97-98 82  .423   .645   .312  10.2   3.3   3.6   22.4
98-99 42  .412   .559   .369    8.5   3.1   2.8   18.7
99-00 82  .430   .699   .256    8.0   3.7   3.2   20.5
00-01 14  .423   .730   .470    9.1   3.2   3.5   21.5

47% from three-point land???? 73% from the line???

Those numbers could be inflated since the Celts have avoided the top
West
Coast teams this season (Duncan, KG, Rasheed and everyone else). And
Walker
is still prone to make those ill-fated highlight reel passes that always
careen off the basket support. And he's getting an inordinate amount of
his
shots blocked under the basket, mostly because his inside game has
become
more grounded this season (ala LJ) and he's not attacking the rim. But
overall? I'm pleased.

If you were grading the Celtics players after 14 games, Antoine would
receive a solid A-minus. You couldn't ask for much more -- he plays hard
every game and he's the most indispensable player on the team.

*****
As for Paul Pierce, he's been getting a free ride all season because of
the
Buzz Club incident. Hey, maybe his head's messed up. If so, you couldn't
blame him. But a few facts remain:

1. The Peep has been mailing it in on the defensive end (when Mitch
Richmond
scores 28 on the road against you, that's a warning sign). It's reached
the
point where Bryant Stith has drawn all the tough defensive assignments
at
the 2/3 spots unless the Celts are playing a team like New York or
Milwaukee.

2. His free throw shooting has been dreadful all season -- he shot 80%
last
season and just 67% this season. He's also averaging almost 3.9
turnovers a
game, the fifth-highest in the league. The running theme word here?
Sloppy.

3. Pierce has played only four really good all-around games all season
and
they all came at home: against Detroit, New York, Atlanta and Orlando.
He's
averaging 22.4 points per-game overall and just 16.3 on the road (with
37%
shooting). And you wonder why this team is 1-5 on the road.

4. Time and time again, the Peep has driven to the basket, not gotten
the
call, lost the ball... and then remained behind to bitch at the refs
while
the play shifted to the other end of the court. Inexcusable. Probably my
least favorite thing to witness on a basketball court, by any player. I
thought he was better than that.

5. Just a personal note: I think Pierce has bordered on "Ball Hog"-dom
at
times this season. In his defense, if we were Paul Pierce and we were
being
double-teamed, we wouldn't want to swing the ball to McCarty or Williams
either.

6. I have the advantage of sitting close at midcourt during home games,
so I
notice things that most people can't pick up... and I'm telling you,
other
than Kenny Anderson, Pierce is the Celtic player who seems most
worn-down by
Pitino. There have been at least 5-6 situations this year where Pitino
was
yelling about something and the Peep either walked away, made a face or
yelled back at him. If you attend any of the home games, look for this.
Pierce's body language seems totally different this season, like a guy
who's
just plain tired of his coach.

Here's my point: the FleetCenter fans jump on Walker's back all the
time,
but maybe they're getting on the wrong guy. Pierce's play has been
spotty
and sloppy all season, but he made up for it with his three-point
shooting
(a startling 39%) and an overall sense of when/where to get his 20-22 a
night. Yet Walker has played with a higher level of passion, consistency
and
overall excellence than Pierce all season long... and he's the player
getting booed at home. Go figure.

PS: Celts 20-game report card coming next week.