Re: KA & KA Jr.

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

I agrew with Joe that I just didn't see Kenny passing up assists to take
shots, which is why I don't think of him as a "shoot first" point guard.
He's averaged a bit over 12 points a game over his Boston career, which is
probably below average for starting NBA point guards. The problem is that
he's not a "pass first" point guard either. He's kind of a "safety first"
point guard. He doesn't seem to take any chances and it means that he
doesn't really create many opportunities. His number one option is not a
shot for himself -- it seems to be the safe pass that doesn't create an
easy opportunity for anybody. It's weird because the guy averaged 7-9
assist per game earlier in his career. The low number of assists may very
well be a product of Pitino's system, as Anderson has claimed. But if this
is true, how the heck did Mark Jackson average 10 assists per game under
Pitino? I don't remember what Pitino's coaching looked like back then but
has he completely revamped his offensive system since his Knicks days?

The thing is, as disappointing as Anderson is, the offense under him was
still much much better than the offense under Barros or Overton. I'm a bit
wary of trading him until we are sure that the other point guards can
actually run the offense when Antoine is not having a good day.

Alex

At 05:25 PM 10/18/00 +0200, Hironaka wrote:
>To the degree that Kenny's role last year was to take open jump shots off the
>pass (career high FG% as a result), avoid turnovers, and try to play the best
>defense he could and stay healthy (he played 82 games), I think he did his
>"job". He filled roughly the same role as Brown filled in against Atlanta
(minus
>the 13 deflections), which is very different from the systems that allowed a
>very talented dribbler to average as high as 9.6 assists and 16+ shot
attempts
>per game in the NBA.
>
>But if you've watched games last season and honestly saw Kenny regularly
passing
>up easy assist opportunities to jack up a jumpshot, or deliberately
slowing down
>a fast break opportunity, then as much as I'd like to believe that is true
I'd
>have to say you were watching from a different twilight zone. The Kenny I saw
>had very few genuine assist opportunities and also very few turnovers. Like I
>said, he was doing what it sounds like Brown was doing the other night,
and what
>Pitino demanded of him.
>
>Right now people seem to be stereotyping Kenny (a cancer, selfish etc.)
rather
>than somewhat more accurately as a guy who followed the Celts game plan
for once
>in good faith. The point is that what Kenny provided last season for
Pitino was
>still probably inadequate (because of defensive shortcomings), not that the
>Celtics failed because of his selfishness or unwillingness to push the ball.
>
>Guess what, if Kenny could have his way I'd bet he'd LOVE to push the ball
and
>dribble the ball twice as long on every single possession like Jason Williams
>gets to.