Re: T*E*A*M

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

Good points. As much as I (maybe unfairly) dislike Battie ever since the
cop-dragging incident, I think he can be a very good rebounder if he comes to camp
a little bit stronger physcially each year (I hope he is already stronger this
year, I guess we'll see tonight). As a shotblocker and shot challenger, Battie
will always give you fewer boards than a pure rebounder (just as Bird always got a
few more defensive boards than McHale). But if Battie can get 2 blocks a game,
then anything above 8 boards per game in starter minutes would be a welcome
achievement. Already, he's not a bad rebounder at all on a per-minute basis.

One advantage Battie and Moiso will have is playing alongside someone like
Potapenko who boxes out as well as anyone and who treats this sort of grunt work
like some sort of statistic you can accumulate (like a "pancake block" in
football).

The problem is that Potapenko rarely gets any lift to go up for the rebound as a
result, unless it conveniently falls in his lap. For all that, he was a very
strong rebounder for the first 2/3rds of last year before trailing off at the end
(he lost a lot of minutes too, as Pitino started showcasing Fortson).

V's supposedly in great shape, and so we may hopefully see some of that old school
toughness tonight against the rookie prima donna Joel Przybilla. Milwaukee also
has a pair of finesse forwards (Tim Thomas and Big Dog) who will wipe us out
tonight if Antoine, Griffin and Battie don't execute on defense. Cassell, Ray
Allen and 6th man Lindsay Hunter can all go for 25 points against the perimeter
defense and layup drill press of last year's Celtics. I hope we'll see lots of
energy.  And a (meaningless) win would be nice, to calm everyone down.

Can someone please volunteer to do a game summary, assuming Bill Cooper wants to
extend his summer vacation a few more days?

Blount is one new face who might give us a good season preview tonight, what with
five Celtics players out and Griffin a bit behind the others in conditioning. It
will be nice to see a young, mobile 7-foot prospect wearing green. If Blount plays
well against Pryzbilla, that might help validate Spintino's comment that he is the
equivalent of a top 7 to 12 lottery pick. Chris Carr might also end up auditioning
half or more of Paul Pierce's normal minutes. I'm sure it will be fun for a 6-0
Ivy league grad like "MJ" to get a chance to go up against All Stars like Cassell
and Ray Allen, before he is inevitably cut and joins an investment bank.

One more thing, with no one tonight on our roster capable of shooting the three
(Pierce and Herren are out), I'm afraid that "responsibility" might fall by
default on the willing shoulders of Waltah and Antoine. We'll soon see if Waltah's
summer sessions with Kiki Vandeweigh involved actual shooting tutorials, or
singing duets of "Ebony and Ivory" like some people on this list apparently seem
to fear. ;-)


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JBMetzEA@aol.com wrote:

>     As we go into the exhibition season, one nagging question sits with me.
> Can and will we play as a team? This is the story tonight and for the next
> several weeks. Will Kenny Anderson get the ball up-court? Will Antoine run
> the wing? Will the team defense concept and rebounding efforts get thrown out
> the window by the players after the first hard loss?
>     There are so many big men injured in the Eastern Conference: Mourning,
> Geiger, Feick, Coleman and with Ewing and Smitts(and Dale Davis) gone, we
> could be up there with the big boys, fighting for home court, if we hold
> together with the team concepts that Bill Russell was brought in to reinforce.
>     Although we wont see our whole team tonight, or in the near
> future(Herren, Stith, Moiso, Brown and Pierce are out), we will get to see
> the spirit of the team.
>     We enter preseason upgraded: at point guard; where Brown and Herren give
> us some depth (Dana was a negative factor), at center; by the loss of
> Pervis(Blount has to be more help) and the added year of experience and
> maturity for Vitaly and Battie. We also should get more scoring from Carr and
> Stith than Cheaney.
>     It may be difficult to replace the efforts of Fortson though. The whole
> team, especially Antoine, will have to concentrate on hitting the boards.
> Pierce and Griffen are above average rebounders at their positions also, but
> the real efforts will have to come from Battie and Vitaly. Both can score and
> both can rebound, if they work at it. The area that most posters point to as
> our weakness may turn out to be our biggest strength.
> JB