A possible benefit of Blount?

[JBMetzEA@aol.com]

    After last season we had three areas that needed improvement: 
    Point guard, where we had no viable back-up to Kenny. We acquired a 
veteran defensive specialist and a young up and coming kid who can pass and 
score. Not bad, even though Herren seemed to fall into Pitino's lap. 
    Scoring. When Pierce was injured we lost 8 of 9 games (or something like 
that) and when he and Walker were on the bench, there was nothing. We 
acquired Carr and Stith, so far not a great contribution, but better than 
Cheaney.
    The last area was interior defense. As Mark Blount plays more and more I 
see that he will be a lot more of a player than Pervis was. LOL. 
    Actually the real benefit of having Blount may be that Battie, who is not 
comfortable under the basket or guarding the muscled centers can get outside 
and start at power forward. This would allow Antoine, who is almost never on 
the blocks anymore to play the wing. This is where he wants to play so why 
not let him. I have been against this since the second season when it was 
mentioned, but I am beginning to see that there is no other choice. Pierce is 
slimmed down and can defend at the guard spot. Battie and Vitaly make a 
better rebounding tandem and Antoine can post up the smaller threes as well 
as pass and shoot from outside, which he is going to do no matter, without 
hurting us in the rebounding area and Battie will block some shots.
    In this scenario Blount backs up Vitaly and Battie with Moiso getting the 
remaining minutes at the 4.