Re: What the lineups should be

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

Celtic4Hire@AOL.com wrote:

> As far as I'm concerned Moiso should be the only substitution for Walker AND
> Pierce. Carr should be
> Stith's backup. I don't care if Moiso loses us the next five games, the boy has
> super upside. This guy can give us the third offensive threat if developed. Why
> waste minutes on Williams, Walter and even Griffen?...

I agree the minutes ought to go at this stage to Jerome Moiso, but the guy
obviously has to do his part. He can make tons of mistakes out there but at least
do so with high intensity and commitment. Let's face is, we are rebuilding and we
need to be smart about it. Also, our other small forward Adrian Griffin
unfortunately doesn't have the extra margin of athleticism to still contribute
when he's even slightly injured. I think the Celts need to rest him completely
rather than be a 5 minute per game role player and lose all remaining confidence.
It's easy to forget how impactful Adrian was when he was healthy. To some people,
Bryant Stith has been "this year's Adrian" and in turn that makes Griffin seem a
dime-a-dozen talent.

But Stith's impact this year, while a welcome surprise, can't be compared to
Griffin last year when he basically was leading a .500 Celtics team in steals,
rebounds, FG% while making clutch late-game plays. You've got to play pretty well
(a lot better than Stith) to get Rookie of the Month in a stellar class that
included Odom, Brand and Francis, all of whom were putting up big numbers pretty
much from the get go. Griffin got that honor not by scoring a ton of points but
the hard way--namely with nearly "perfect" stat lines game after game of the 5-7
from the field variety. In the end, I suppose Griffin will probably be remembered
in Boston as a flash-in-the-pan. It's kind of rare to see a young player's game
fall apart this badly over relatively minor injuries, and it really is a shame
too in this particular case because he's so "old school" and thoroughly
Celtic-like. But I can easily imagine Adrian one day resurfacing somewhere as a
30-year-old veteran making huge plays in big playoff games.... hopefully not
playing for Pat Riley or someone like that of course. :-)

As for this year's Celts, I suddenly find them endearing in a humbled, humilated,
underdog kind of way now that Pitino has left, even if I secretly hope they are
repeatedly on the losing end of a ton of hard fought, one-point losses the rest
of the way and get a true shot at drafting a center or franchise power forward.
I'm very happy to see Pitino leave, but at the same time I can't imagine any
player (or employee for that matter) walking away from 22 million owed to him and
admire Pitino a lot for that. Anyway, I'm back from a long home leave vacation
and happy to be reading this list again.

Joe

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