Re: First Ex. Game Thoughts

[Dan Forant <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>]

Hope you guy's aren't building up false hopes. Let's get realistic, their
going to suck. I said it before and I'll say it again, the problem is
Anderson. He just doesn't fit on this team and will hinder it's growth till
he's gone. He'll show up some nites and skip three others. We have three
solid players, Walker, Pierce and Anderson, and one doesn't belong here. We
need a young energetic point even if he's a project. Even in exhibition,
lose by 36.........................Jesus!

Dan

At 04:15 PM 10/11/00 -1000, you wrote:
>Celts lose by 36 and Alex was right -- we saw a lot of bad play. 
>Then again, the team we put out on the floor wasn't the team we'll 
>have in two weeks.  The team looked lousy, but I guess the plan is to 
>win the last four exhibition games and just sort of try things and 
>look at guys for the first four.  The starting lineup looked like 
>this:
>
>Anderson
>Carr
>Williams
>Walker
>Potapenko
>
>and the bench (in the order they appeared to come in):
>
>Battie
>Jordan
>McCarty
>Blount
>Griffin
>Elliot
>
>though Blount and Griffin came into the game during the same timeout, 
>I think.  Overall, I'd have to say that I saw a lot of the same 
>things I've seen in recent years: the press giving up easy 
>layups/dunks, some selfish offensive play, lack of D.  But it's only 
>the first exhibition game, and guys like Elliot, Blount and Jordan 
>were getting a lot of minutes.
>
>Carr:  Can't play D, but anyone who saw Chicago play last year knew 
>that.  Other than that, had some offense, but looked understandably 
>lost.  I'm wondering if Stith might give Carr a good run for a non-IR 
>roster spot.
>
>Blount:  Looked halfway decent, and had a few nice blocks.  Scored 
>something like 10 points but only had 3 rebs I think.  Still, I'm 
>cautiously optimistic that he'll turn out to be the best of the 
>mediocre big men the team has brought in recently (Riley, Schintzius, 
>even Ellison, and a few guys I don't even remember).  It's the first 
>time I've seen Blount play, so I wasn't moved one way or the other, 
>but he looked, not really big, but fairly solid in a lean frame. 
>(Took one shot from the top of the key that just looked pathetic, 
>though -- I think that's just a bit out of his range.)
>
>Jordan & Elliot:  I wonder if there's a spot open on the roster for 
>one of these guys?  I count that we have fourteen players when they 
>all get healthy/are officially part of the team/settle their travel 
>plans, and I'd expect Pitino to fill up the full 15-man roster. 
>Jordan pushed the ball and passed well; he looked a bit like I had 
>hoped Wayne Turner would look like.  Little offense.  Herren's a 
>better bet at third-string PG, though, and I doubt four PG's make it. 
>Elliot didn't show much, however, but he is 6'8".
>
>The rest of the players looked like they look on some of their worst 
>nights.  Walker drove into 3-4 guys and was blocked, Anderson was 
>Anderson on an off night (though when he _did_ push the ball, nobody 
>ran with him on the break), Potapenko missed some in close and 
>fumbled a few passes, Battie was just kinda there.  Eric Williams had 
>a nice offensive game, though.
>
>There were a few bright spots, as I saw.  Though neither were 
>consistently there, at times the Celts seemed to want to run (with a 
>few nice outlet passes by V) and also showed, at times, a willingness 
>to pass the ball around.  If they could have doen that all game, they 
>might've made it a closer.  They really missed Pierce and probably 
>Brown, though.
>
>Moiso:  What's the deal?  You'd think a guy who just got drafted high 
>in the first round would settle up his pesky international travel 
>obligations pretty early in the summer, so as not to ... oh, I don't 
>know, miss the start of training camp and the first pre-season game. 
>Or maybe his agent needs to define his job description a bit more, or 
>write on the chalkboard 100 times "I will make sure my clients are 
>able to legally travel to the country they get paid to play in."
>
>Herren and Stith:  Sounds OK.  Too bad Pack didn't want to play for 
>the Celts, and I can understand his reasons, but I say if a guy 
>doesn't want to play for the team, take a hike, fella.  (Still, if I 
>were him, and it was a team other than the C's, I might've done what 
>he did.)  Anyway, Herren might be just what the team needs -- a 
>third-string PG to groom for an eventual full-time backup job.  And 
>I've already mentioned that Stith might possibly beat out Carr for 
>minutes.
>
>Not really a game summary (well, who could do them better than Bill 
>Cooper, anyway?) just a few impressions.  Can't wait until the 
>regular season starts.
>
>Regards,
>
>Bill
>
>