Re: two more going pro

[Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- You wrote:
It seems to me the main reason Blount got starter minutes, and partly why this
coincided with our solid run, is his defense (and not just shotblocking or
certain
facets of defense). Battie may be a better shot blocker and defensive rebounder
than Blount,  but overall defense is another issue. I can't qualitatively make
a
big distinction between the two, having not seen much. What do you think? I
always
felt that Battie was below-average on defense, to the degree that he was worse
than
Potapenko in some areas.
--- end of quote ---

I think the stated reason Blount got to start (but not starter's minutes) was
that Vitaly could do more damage against second-stringers. As for their
defense, none of the three is any threat to make the All-Defensive (3rd) team,
and they all have different strengths and weaknesses: Battie can bother shots,
Pot can push people around and is becoming more clever on D, and Blount has
more beef than Tony and more shotblocking/length than Pot, but is less
experienced than either. Still, he doesn't do a terrible job, and eventually
should be adequate-to-good. His basketball smarts is his main problem and I
*think* he's showing a little bit of progress. 
Battie's problem is that he gets pushed around because he's a lanky PF guarding
centers, and he tends to get into foul trouble trying push back.  I really wish
he played PF - with Antoine's skill passing into the post, he could score quite
a bit, and would add around 7 rebounds, 1.5-2 blocks and better defense at PF,
thereby shifting the whole constituttion of the lineup from being way
undersized to at least adequate. We're getting killed on the boards (currently
#26 in rebounding), because we have a starting center averaging 3.5 rpg, and
because we basically have a PF, 2 swingmen, and 2 guards on the court most of
the time. In a related news (not!), we're also dead last in the league in
shotblocking, partly because Toine "has" to play 42 minutes per game at PF and
our 2 best shotblockers are averaging 23 and 17 mpg, respectively. 
Kestas