RE: Antoine needs new moves and more finesse

["I am. . . Anonymous" <ktoreed@yahoo.com>]

Ok.  I'm going to say this real slowly and try to make
this real clear so even those with primitive,
simplistic minds like mine can understand.  -  There
is a phenemonon in the NBA in that some players are
Shotblockers.  The really good ones block lots of
shots... indiscriminately.  Be it a little point guard
or a power forward looking for a layup.  They close
down the lane.  So what the hell are opposing teams
supposed to do against shotblockers?  Force
three-pointers?  Shoot endless jumpers?  Nope.  You
take it right to em.  You get a gutsy PF like Toine
who just plain doesn't give a shit and charge right in
there.  Challenge them.  Get in their face and
hopefully get them in foul-trouble.  I appluad Toine
for having the will to spin/barrell his way inside
rather than settling for endless jumpers.  

I don't think that #8 stupidly charges in knowing that
he has no chance for success.  I think it's part of
the game-plan.  The coaches make him do it.  You have
to at least TRY to go inside.  On another note:  Allen
Iverson shot 9-28 last night.  Any monkey can jack up
28 shots, eh?  Let someone like Toine play with the
likes of Theo Ratliff and the rest of the unselfish
thugs on that team and you will see him blossom to
clearly one of the best players in the NBA. The media
likes to heap attention onto those who score but I
think the foundation of any team is to have unselfish
thugs willing to do the dirty-work.  The Celts had
Parish, McHale and DJ.  The Bulls had Rodman and
Pippen.  Pippen shoulda at least been CO-MVP of the
Jazz-Bulls series.  I didn't see MJ step in and take
any charges on Karl Malone like Pippen did.  He
sacrificed his body for the good of the team.  But I
wander...

The point I'm trying to make is that I am less
inclined to be nitpicky on Antoine because he has
recently been sacrificing his own game for the good of
the team.  He's letting Pierce take the the MJ or
McHale scoring role while he himself is being a
supplemental like Bird/Pippen was -  running the
offense, feeding the player with the hot hand,
scraping his knees and blistering his hand diving
after loose balls, passing out of double teams,
playing intelligent.  When Pierce is hot, Antoine will
play supplement to Pierce.  He will run the offense to
set him up, hit the boards, do the intangibles.  Yet
it seems to me that when Toine is hot, Pierce will
still think that he is "the man" and jack them up in
the 4th like in that Minnesota game.  Toine has
achieved a level of maturity and basketball IQ to
complement his obvious talents on the court. That is
why I firmly believe, as I've stated all along, that
we are gonna make the playoffs.  Our 3rd, 4th, and 5th
best players now are Eric Williams, Potapenko, and
Randy Brown, and we've still been winning.  That's
what we should be talking about, not nit-picking.



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