Re: bench use positives

["Cecil Wright" <cecil@hfx.eastlink.ca>]

Gene,

Do you think that O'Brien has Brown and Forte on the bench for a reason?
You want them to play Kedrick because in severely limited minutes of play,
he hasn't killed us.  You are forgetting that he is making a jump from
Junior College to the NBA.  Meaning the defensive schemes employed by Harter
are much more stringent than what he has ever used for starters.

If he comes in and plays badly, what good would it be for anyone?  Let them
be brought along slowly and make meaningful contributions when O'bie thinks
the time is right.

Kwame Brown doesn't appear too much on court during Wizards games either but
I think he will in time.

Patience.

Cecil
Just be patient with the kids.
----- Original Message -----
From: "gene kirkpatrick" <gk_tyler@yahoo.com>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2001 6:40 AM
Subject: bench use positives


> Over the first two months, we have seen several positive uses of the bench
players.  We have seen the Battie/Potapenko rotation become a rather smooth
one and Blount relegated to a distant third.  We have also seen Strickland
emerge over Palacio, which seems to be a positive.  Strickland has more
experience and does hit a few shots, while driving to the hole as much as
Milt, plus defensive pressure--I rate that a positive exchange. Again,
McCarty sits and most agree with that.  The next move, I think, would be to
use the other two rookies.  Let Kedrick replace Antoine and Paul for their
plus forty minutes.  He hasn't proved to hurt us on the court.  And
comparisons to slow developers aren't warranted unless we hear that he's
slow in his own development; we hear just the opposite from practice.  Then,
allow Forte to show just how unready he is behind Kenny.  He has more
ability to develop into something special than Strickland or Palacio.  It's
not merely that fans want to se!
> e the rooks.  It's that they can't mature or help us without game time.
Anyway, I think we need to balance the present with the future a little
more.
>
> Obviously, I don't see any problem with analyzing what the coach is doing,
the plusses and minuses.  So far, he's doing quite well.  I just think we're
leaving too much talent on the bench, talent that can score as well as
defend.  We're not losing because of defense anymore.  It's because we lack
consistent and varied scoring.  Cheers,  Gene
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