Re: The man in the middle

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Jim Meninno wrote:

> I wonder if Antoine will finally get some small forward minutes.  OB has
> made a lot of other moves that have seemed like long overdue common sense.
> With Antoine already shooting a lot of three's and both centers playing
> well, maybe a frontline of Walker, Battie and Potapenko will get some
> action.  In that way, the minutes would probably come at the expense of
> Stith and Williams.  Antoine and Pierce probably need to cut down a minute
> or two each as well.

    You look at a team like Milwaukee--which profits by winning nearly every
bench-scoring differential because Karl brings scorers Tim Thomas and Lindsey
Hunter in as reserves--and it makes sense to be able to counter with a veteran
bench of Stith, Williams, Kenny (designated scorer) and Potapenko.

    This would be not unlike the 60-win Celtics bench of 1979-80, with ML Carr,
Robey and Maravich (plus Judkins, Henderson, Fernstein, Duerod). That may sound
like a fairly lame bench (the pre-McHale/Ainge era), but actually Carr, Robey
and Maravich all averaged around double-figures that year. In those days, Philly
had a monster bench with the Jones boys (not our HOFer Jones boys of course).
They later traded that bench depth to go get Moses. They went from being ten
deep to having Iavaroni in the starting lineup...but it was worth it obviously.

    But taking Obie's word that Stith, Blount and Williams are the best
defensive players on the roster, we probably need two of them out there with our
scorers at all times. Its better not to mess with chemistry. Give Potapenko 10
minutes as Walker's backup and the scrap minutes after Blount/Battie swap
between 40-48 minutes a night at center. With all the hype about Blount's
defense and shotblocking, the fact is Potapenko is the guy quietly picking up
the rebounding and scoring load we need at center.

    A lot of people are contributing to this turnaround, obviously, but give the
captains the most credit. Big game on Wednesday, we're losing, and so they step
up and score 25 of Boston's 30 points in the fourth, and Pierce calmly nails 7-7
on those pressure free throws. It is like our go-to guy are finally the ones
turning it up an extra notch in the fourth quarter and making the veteran plays,
instead of watching the other team get serious and put us away. They basically
"outbigplayed" and outhustled a smart, veteran team in the clutch. The biggest
shock is that this is becoming much more of a trend than an isolated event. No
team in the conference can stop our two captains from scoring right now.

    How valuable are our two franchise players? Well here's a trivia question:
who has a better overall coaching record this season, Phil Jackson or Obie?
Answer: Obiewon (.667) beats the Zenmeister (.660).

    Van Gundy, El Greasy One and George Karl aren't even close. Bring 'em all
on, I say.

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