Player evaluations - PGs

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

I am going through each player and trying to foresee what their role for
the Celtics would be, as well as what  kind of production I would hope from
them.

Kenny Anderson is the starting point guard. In some respects, last season
was his best as a Celtic. His shooting was quite good: 45.6% from 2 pt
range, 38.6% from 3 pt range. He played some defense and had 1.70 steals,
his high in a Celtics uniform. And he played all 82 games. On the other
hand, his 5.1 apg were a career low as a starter in the league and he
didn't seem to push the pace.
	I don't think that we are ever going to see Kenny average 8-9 assists per
game on this team for a couple reasons. First, he's not going to get much
more than 30 minutes per game as opposed to someone like Kidd who gets 40
minutes per game. Second, we run a set offense in the halfcourt that
doesn't rely so much on point guard penetration. On the other hand, 5.1 apg
is subpar for someone with his abilities even taking these into account.
I'm hoping that additional team athleticism and hopefully a higher tempo
mindset from Kenny will boost that total into the 6-7 apg range.

Randy Brown was signed to be the backup point guard and a leadership
presence. The addition of Pack clouds the picture. Brown was given starter
minutes the last two seasons and averaged under 4 apg each season. However,
the Bulls were running the triangle offense with a terrible group of
players. In any case, I really doubt he's a threat to take over the
starting job. He's not a great shooter and doesn't have three point range.
On the plus side, his defense is well regarded and he has the size to match
up with the bigger point guards in this league. He's got athleticism and
fits in with the press. And he's got those championship rings which will
hopefully give him some credibility in his leadership role.
	If Brown ends up being the primary backup (over Pack), I would hope that
he would provide quality backup minutes at point - that the offense would
not crash to a complete halt when Kenny came out. And that he would take up
some minutes against tough, big point guards that Kenny had trouble with.
Hopefully he can do some decent work on the full court press. 

Robert Pack's future with the Celtics is a mystery right now. There is the
rumor of Pack for Herren which makes a lot of sense to me as I can't
imagine both Pack and Brown staying past this season - you don't need two
high paid 30-something backups. Gene's inside info seems to reflect that
Pack would rather not be in this situation. 
	The first question about Pack, assuming he stays, is whether he will have
a healthy season. I am also somewhat curious as to why Dallas was so eager
to be rid of him. I have not seen him play but it sounds like he could be a
good fit - uptempo, scoring ability. He had 7 double digit assist games
last year out of the 29 he played. 

So it seems like we might have a minutes problem at backup PG if everyone
comes in healthy. Of course it's nice to be talking about guys like Brown
and Pack rather than Turner or Overton. Barring an incredible breakthrough
by Pack in his contract year, Kenny is still the key to the offense.

I'll do centers at some later point.

Alex