Re: First Ex. Game Thoughts

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

    FWIW, you obviously can't evaluate a team by its play on the losing
end of a 30-point blowout. Things just break down. I remember the Celts
coming back from some embarrassing facials in 1984 (remember Brent
Musburgers' "Lakers Dynasty" talk) to start winning by low double figures
and take the series against La La Land. Similarly, we blew out the
Flakers by 40 in 1985 (when Scott Wedman pitched a perfect game, 11-11 I
think) only to lose that series (I know injuries and Maxwell's MIA played
a role though).

    If the Celts have any heart and ability, this will be a wakeup game
to start playing as a team. This game reminds me of the 1997-98 preseason
and early season, when we couldn't do anything right in the new system
and with limited personnel. People may forget how utterly bleak and
hopeless things looked early in that season, and what in retrospect was a
really impressive underdog run we made to climb up around .500 by the New
Year. We may have all taken this for granted, because we felt that Pitino
would easily get the team quickly up to .500 at a minimum (BTW, maybe the
principle reason Walker made the All Star team over Webber was that the
team Toine was carrying was on a winning trend). Of course the chicken
outbreak withered and burned out over the final third of that season,
while our opponents kept getting better as teams, and so we played really
disappointing 2nd half basketball even with Kenny Anderson's arrival.
Same pattern the last two seasons, with last Spring (against an easy 2nd
half schedule, just 1 game out of the playoffs in March, everyone finally
healthy, and with Walker playing by far the best and most unselfish ball
of his career) being by FAR the most disappointing/deflating moment of
the Pitino era/experiment.

    The Celtics team of that year was also by far the best conditioned
team in camp we've ever had, yet still somehow Poultrino insists that
better conditioning will somehow make the system finally work this time
around. The only source of hope is that maybe the curfew will have an
impact (in other words, maybe the young Celtics gave up on conditioning
as the season progressed in each of the past three years). I don't know.
I'm hoping so.

    Another point. If it is taking this long for the in-camp Celtics to
execute the defense they've been focusing on, then I'm worried that
Herren and Stith will be too far behind to get into the rotation this
year. Last year, Fortson missed the last 1/3rd of the preseason and
dropped permanently out of the picture, after getting double figure
boards in both exhibition games  he played in and earning tons of praise
from Spintino. Right now it looks like Stith might be the guy who comes
up with a phantom injury.

    Thanks for the game summaries Alex and Bill Bird.  I'm obviously far
afield from the real action, so take any pessimism I write with a grain
of salt. Pitino's a winner. The system can work with better conditioning.
North Korea has a self-sufficient  model agrarian economy....etc.

    As far as forming an opinion, all that we can go on right now is how
the final rotation (sans Pierce) looks over the last four preseason
games. The Celts need to get off to a very fast start against a weak
schedule in order to break through the brick wall of the February/March
slump we've experienced in the past. My general view right now is that
they need to win slightly over 20 games by the All Star break (with
Walker present by default because of the lack of Eastern power forwards)
just to match the 36-win total of Pitino's best and first year. But game
by game, I think we will match up very well in power forward depth and
athleticism against the majority of opponents, and I just wish Pitino
were a coach that demanded more efficient and constant lowpost offense
rather than perimeter chuck&duck.

Joe

----
bird 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