my prediction

[Rohan Prashad <rprasha@clemson.edu>]

Before I actually submit my prediction, I think I'll subject the list to a 
little more amateur analysis. So in the spirit of Way of the Ray, here is a 
less cynical version of Good signs/Bad signs.

Bad Signs:

Kenny Anderson: I never was in the "Kenny Anderson sucks" camp. I always 
thought his ability to penetrate, shooting, and lack of turnovers made him 
an above average point guard and an asset for our team. But now that I've 
had a little comparison and seen how a true, unselfish point guard handles 
this club, I've seen how wrong I was. Chris Herren is hardly a great point 
guard, but his hustle, the way he got everyone involved, pushing the ball 
up the floor, and a little defense turned this team into a powerhouse. 
Kenny Anderson will never do any of those things the way Pitino wants and 
that is unfortunate.

Interior/FrontcourtDefense: Our interior defense will once again be among 
the league's worst. Vitaly is our best post defender and he is mediocre at 
best. We will continue to get abused underneath the boards and in the post, 
and will continue to give up a horrible field goal percentage. Mark Blount 
quickly developing this year is our only hope, and that shows the 
desperation of that situation.

Old habits die hard: Despite the overall improved play of our club during 
the preseason, two games really were depressing to me. The Washington game 
where we blew a 13 point lead in the 4th quarter, and the 2nd Atlanta game. 
Blowing huge leads down the stretch was a trademark for us last year and it 
doesn't look like anything has changed. Nothing is more frustrating than us 
consistently allowing other teams to come back. The Atlanta game we just 
gave no effort against a CBA quality bunch. Reminded me of those first two 
games against Chicago last year, plain embarrassing. Until we can truly fix 
these problems and quit talking about fixing them, we will continue to lose 
games against teams we should beat.

Good signs:

Individual play of Pierce, Walker, Griffin: These guys individual play has 
been encouraging. Griffin has shown some signs of returning to form, which 
provides a HUGE intangible asset for our club. Pierce has not been his 
best, but just looks rusty and doesn't really show any ill effects from the 
stabbing incident. His shooting mechanics are too good to stay in this 
slump long. Antoine has been very promising to me. His shot definitely has 
improved and was hitting his free throws much better. From all accounts his 
fitness is better, and that should lead to more explosiveness and hopefully 
defense from him. He also seems to have cut down on the boneheaded plays 
somewhat.

The Press: The Pitino press is back, and although I'm unsure whether it is 
a good system or not, we did have our best season under Pitino when we 
pressed the most. The press will help to alleviate our deficiencies at half 
court defense and give us some easy scoring opportunities. If you compare 
the rosters when we last implemented the press full time and this year, 
this year's team is without question superior.

A Stronger Bench: Last year the bench cost us many a lead when they 
replaced the starters. This year we have better substitutes and this should 
help keep leads and win more games.

The Weak East Side: As has been previously pointed out many times, the 
Eastern Conference is very weak this year. It should mean that we can beat 
any team in this conference at any given time. We also should be able to 
get off to a good start with a favorable "Fleet Friendly" schedule in the 
first month. I wouldn't call this a huge strength though since you never 
know when we are going to play well.

Overall, I think our weaknesses outweigh our strengths. However, I also 
think we were an underachieving team last year and if we can put it all 
together, we could be a force in this Eastern Conference. As an eternal 
Celtics optimist, I am predicting 43 wins and a playoff spot as well!

Rohan