Re: My case against Obie and Chris Wallace

["Jim Meninno" <Jim_Meninno@hotmail.com>]

----- Original Message ----- From: Berry, Mark S <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>

> Subject: My case against Obie and Chris Wallace

This has been a very interesting thread because it gets right to the heart
of what's wrong with the Celtics on a couple of levels.  On the court, their
big men are either not good enough or not big enough or both.  Off the
court, they have a lame duck front office.  I agree with most of the
basketball points made, but not with a lot of the knocks made on O'Brien.

> The players and almost everyone on the list seem to be in favor of
retaining
> O'Brien and Wallace. I'm not, and here's why:

Maybe I'm being a little pedantic, but I don't think I've heard many people
saying Chris Wallace should be kept as the General Manager.  Personally I
think he's a good judge of talent, but he wasn't ready to be a GM.  If he
stays with the team, it should be in a reduced capacity and that's probably
not likely to happen.

> This is a terrible, terrible rebounding team, and yet every time these two
> discuss the roster it begins and ends with Walker at PF and "our three
> centers hold their own..." They seem to have zeroed in on PG as the team's
> biggest need. Obviously, PG is a problem, but in my mind the biggest
> weakness for this team has been and continues to be the soft middle....
>
> I have to think someone coming in with a fresh perspective on this roster
> would see that. O'Brien seems as stubborn as Pitino in his outright
refusal
> to play Antoine at SF alongside another big body at PF. Some might argue
> he'd change his approach if given time in training camp, and maybe that's
> true. But he has given no indication at all that he has even considered
such
> a change in philosophy.

I just don't believe that both of these guys don't know that the team's
biggest need is quality big men.  I just don't believe it.  Your evidence is
that neither of them comes out and says, "well, we're lucky to be where we
are considering the fact that our centers are just good enough to keep us
from getting laughed out of the building every night and we're depending on
a power forward who's too stupidly competitive to realize that he's far too
small to do what we're asking of him".  I guess what I'm saying is that
these guys lose no points with me for praising their players in public.  I'm
not so naive to think that all of their public statements reflect what they
truly think.

As far as O'Brien's track record of not playing Antoine with another big
forward, I still believe he hasn't had the chance.  Tony Battie is healthy
enough to play, but he's out of shape, rusty and probably still hurting.  It
would hardly be the right time to try to plug him in as the starting power
forward.  From what I've seen, however, it does seem like Tony has been used
a lot as Antoine's backup, and has played quite a bit with one of the
centers.  That could be a sign that OB wants to use him at 4 more in the
future and, as he plays more minutes, Antoine would have to be playing with
him.  So, I don't think we're in a position to say what Jim O'Brien's ideal
lineup would be.  And I certainly don't think that he'd stick with Antoine
at 4 if the team landed a quality prototypical 4 in the draft.

The real concern here is that the Head of Basketball Operations position
gets settled.  Whomever that is will choose the coach.  Presumably he will
speak to O'Brien and actually ask him the sort of questions we're talking
about.  The reason why O'Brien's extension is not a big deal is that he can
be fired.  If things don't work out, you replace him and move on.  If
Wallace and Papile run this draft and make a mess of it, we'll be living
with that for years.

> ...the most glaring need is up front. That seems lost on the current
Celtic braintrust. And
> that's why I strongly believe we need someone with vision and a plan to
take
> over this franchise. O'Brien and Wallace are so focused on the here and
now and making the
> playoffs, that they can't see the forest for the trees. I see them using
draft picks and free agent
> signings to plug holes in an effort to get that last playoff spot, but we
need someone thinking
> long-term.

O'Brien should be near sighted.  His only job is to win basketball games.
Unless he inherited Pitino's power, he does not sign free agents, draft
players or make trades.  Coach is not the issue here.  It's all about the
front office.

Jim