Re: my turn, my take

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

Robert Bowman wrote:

>  Regardless of who takes over they really need to do some
> serious scouting and evaluating especially if we keep our 3 picks in the
> draft. We definitely need to make the highest of the 3 a surefire
> keeper--someone who becomes a starter and eventual allstar. They've got
> to scour all the college ranks and the high schools even.

Good point.  If ever there was a time for Boston to double or triple up its
effort and resources devoted to college and high school scouting, now would
be great. We are six months away from a potentially deep Boston Celtics
draft....who knows maybe even a Russell-Heinsohn-KC draft lies in our fate?
The Celtics need to watch every damn game and do intense background
checks/interviews on as many young players as possible, so that we end up
with the steals (Havlicek, Ainge) and the future HOFers on the draft board
like in the old days. Because Terence Morris is slipping so badly, maybe
he'll be a steal with a later pick. Above all, we can't blow that number 7
pick. There will certainly be one guy there who will stand out above all the
rest in the future.

---------

Right now I think the center and power forward positions on the Eastern
roster will go to Theo Ratliff (surprisingly only 8 double-doubles), Antonio
Davis, Brian Grant, Marcus Camby, Jermaine O'Neil with  Elton Brand, Antoine
Walker and Anthony Mason or PJ Brown as the dark horses. If they take one
true center, I guess it would have to be Dikimbe (13.9 rpg) or Elden
Campbell (12 double-doubles).

Antoine's numbers are his strong suit. He leads the East in double-doubles
with 24, one behind Webber and just three behind Shaq (both MVP candidates
in the West). He has four triple-doubles, while Jason Kidd has five. But
already two casual fans I know have told me that the Pitino firing was
"Antoine's fault". The impression out there seems to be that Pitino would
surely have succeeded had Antoine not been such an uncoachable, loose
canon....or even that Antoine himself engineered the whole coup d'etat. That
being the case, I doubt the league would want to "reward" such a perceived
jerk with an All Star selection....a guy who doesn't care about winning and
can't be coached. Personally I do think the team's record should be factored
in...I always felt the Celtics of old deserved three selections per year
(even if that hogged a quarter of the All Star roster and left half a dozen
or more teams without a single representative). So if Toine gets left out, I
feel it would be justified. The reason I hope he makes it back this year
(even if my logic may be flawed) is that once he knows he'll be a valued
participant on All Star weekend he won't worry as much about over-reaching
on the personal scoring stats. That is to say, maybe one reason he forces
his way to big scoring outputs is a "cripes, what does it take to get
noticed" kind of panic. Maybe he needs the validation from the league in
order to develop confidence that he will be considered for future All Star
appearances based on his all-around game, even if he averages only 15 shots
per game.

A lot of people talk about Antoine like he's lax about conditioning, and I
guess that might be true or certainly partly true even if it doesn't
completely gibe with his supposed competitiveness or year-round hoops junkie
attitude. But when you look at the average level of athleticism around the
league, one could also argue au contraire that this is a player who might in
fact be squeezing nearly every ounce of production possible out of his
natural talent, and that this is a praiseworthy or at least notable thing on
the face of it. It seems like his NBA peers (certainly even his power
forward teammates from Moiso to Battie) nearly all jump much better and have
longer natural wingspans etc. regardless of whether Toine can return to his
ideal college weight whatever that may be. Maybe I'm just being too much of
an Toine apologist as usual. I know that's part of it. But anyway, this is
maybe a different way of looking at Antoine's commitment level than the
established view.

--------