RE: The man in the middle

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

what I don't understand, Joe, is if V is providing us with scoring
and rebounding, why demote him to scrap minutes behind Tony
Battie?  I think Tony should have to earn minutes away from Vitaly,
who as you say has become a major anchor for us in the middle.
(though I cringed when he blew that dunk vs. the bucks.)

Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
> Sent:	Friday, February 09, 2001 4:47 AM
> To:	Jim Meninno; celtics@igtc.com
> Subject:	Re: The man in the middle
> 
> 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.
> 
> -----