Re: O'Brien's two cents

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

Cecil Wright wrote:

> I find it interesting that nobody challenges the assertion that Williams is
> a better defender than Griffin.  Wasn't his defense the primary reason for
> his notoriety last year?
>

I think if Griffin were fully healthy he'd play in any 8 man rotation on any
team in the league. But he doesn't have the athleticism to make up for being a
half-step slow from nagging injuries.

The fact that this "Denver Chicken McNugget 2-pack Happy Meal" (Stith and
Williams) are the third and fourth best Celtics players right now ought to help
remind people that maybe all the problems with the Celtics aren't the fault of
our two best players. I think we need to be careful about scapegoating the best
players out of impatience with losing. If either guy were on a veteran winning
team, I believe they would be doing the maximum to help their teams win. I
believe they are very valuable players who are committed to winning and happily
make the sacrifices it takes to do so at this stage in their careers (or any
stage). But on this team, that means being "selfish" and passing the ball only
to each other.

Now that Ainge is on record blaming Antoine, the incredibly vague Mike Fine
article now makes a lot more sense. Clearly Fine was referring to Gaston when
he said that "management" was preparing to dump Toine. The point is that Gaston
first needed to hire a basketball executive who actually agrees with his
plan....voila Ainge who lives 3,000 miles away and has been out of the game for
a year.  Fortunately, Ainge has until the end of the season to evaluate and
make a move, thanks to Antoine's base year compensation. All things considered
I personally think that's enough time for Antoine to prove whether he is part
of the eventual solution, or part of the problem.

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