Cs vs Was

[kevin lok <bostonceltics17@yahoo.com>]

got below comments from celtics espn msg boards

========================
Mark Blount: Has been good on D, very active, yet I think now that
Vitaly will be our starting center.. 

Joe Johnson: Very good poise, good defense (had a great steal), good
down low 

Kedrick Brown: WOW!, what a block before the half, had to duck just so
his head wouldnt hit the rim. Great downlow presence and good hops.
Jumper needs a little work. 

Khalid El Amin - WOW, has had a outstanding game so far. Too bad
celtics wont pick him up.. 

Milt - Not so great again today, some good passes, a few too many TO's
again. 

Forte, hasnt shot up the ball much, so Cant say much there... 

The rest are just that...the rest 

As for Kwame Brown : the kid is really good, i think a year or two in
the league and this guy is ready for the show... 

=========================

Johnson - has all the tools.....needs to quicken his dribble a little
and get his head up and he's our PG......nice crossover 

Brown - he's a freak......the guy can fly..... 

Forte - looks like he's doing the right things....I can see a problem
with him getting his outside shots off in the real show 

El-Amin - forget Palacio....I'd rather have this guy......he can flat
out make offense ....... he could get his 10-14mpg on this team and
come up with some very good per 48 min numbers 

Moiso - physical tools galore, but he still doesn't know where he is
out there 

Blount - a little bigger......he's almost the perfect 5 for my lineup:

Johnson 
Pierce 
Brown 
Walker 
Blount 

Bench: 
Forte - he'll be OK 
El-Amin - we need his change of pace to better dictate the pace of the
game 
Potato - he could get alot of offensive boards with the new makeup of
the team 
Battie - if healthy, good 4-5 flexibility for this roster 
Stith - good floor ethic to have with the young guys on the team 
EWill/Moiso/Anderson - whatever.....IR rotation 

================================

Wow. They look really good. They are fast and athletic, and from what
I've seen, great in-your-face-defense. Mark "Blunt" Blount has done
great down low, and JJ and Brown are looking really good, as is Forte.
The thing I really liked was when Kedrick upfaked on that white guy,
took a step, and hit a 15 foot jumper. I think when you add Paul
Pierce and Toine, they are going to be a real physical team. 

===============================

The thing I really liked was when Kedrick upfaked on that white guy,
took a step, and hit a 15 foot jumper. 

that white dude is antoine and ron mercer's former cats teammate, jeff
sheppard. 

the real KB in this game here is Kedrick Brown, and not Kwame Brown.
the wiz wished they'd taken Ked instead HAHAA 

==================================

JJ does look smooth. I didn't realize how good his ball handling
skills are. The experience of El-Amin really shows. He made pretty
good decisions except for a play or two....Kedrick has such
explosiveness in his jump which just showed in the block he just made.
But he didn't make the impression that JJ gave me. New nickname for
Kedrick-how about The Exhibit? because his athleticism is something to
be seen....Forte still looks a little uncomfortable out there. But he
settled down. It's good to see them all make their free
throws...Blount has impressed me alot too. He seems to be a different
player. Much more aggressive. Actually, one of the things I also
noticed is how none of them are afraid to shoot but it's not like they
are shooting the ball as soon as they get it. so their confidence is
at the right level. It also looks like they have good chemistry
together considering they haven't played much with each other. 


ps let's forget about Stith. we can do just as well for less money. I
hope they give Clack a shot. do we have any kind of rights over him? 

====================================

Overall I'd have to say no one playing in the game tonight, for us or
Washington, overly impressed me with their play. By this I mean none
of these guys made me think "Wow, he's going to be an All Star some
day." Of course, it is only the second game of a summer league, people
are nervous, etc, but the quality of play was quite bad. Our three
rookies were solid, I thought they played well, but again I wasn't
wowed by any of them. Moiso looked horrible, especially considering
the competition. Those of us who are looking for him to have a
breakout year, I don't think its going to happen. He must have lost
the ball off of his feet at least 2 or 3 times while trying to make
moves. Milt also looked bad, but I've seen him play much better
against NBA talent so I'm not so worried. El Amin did a very good job,
but I can't tell if he was so successful just because he was trying
harder than the Wizards players. 

All in all, I think we got 3 decent, contributing ball players in
Forte, Johnson, and Brown. They will keep the defenses honest when the
other teams try to focus on Walker and Pierce, and make us a dangerous
offensive team. And this year, the press actually looks like a good
idea, with the 8 second rule making it more difficult to get the ball
up the court. However, we'd better hope our perimeter guys keep us in
games, because in my eyes we will be woefully inadequate in terms of
our big men, unless Battie and Vitaly really improve and play well
this year. 
===========================
Geez Balz, maybe you gotta get out of the lab more often. Even the
announcers were talking it up about our guys. Of course the game is
going to be sloppy and all, but you gotta look for the intangibles.
The game was a glorified pick-up game. JJ looked smart out there.
Kedrick and Forte had their moments. Moiso, yeah, isn't going to be
around when his contract runs out. But to say that you don't think
there's any all-stars there??? Hey, and the kid Kwame Brown looked
pretty damn good for his first game. He's going to do well in this
league. He's got the walk. 
=======================
Let me clarify my statements. I didn't mean I don't think any of these
guys will ever be All Stars, I just meant to convey that I was not
wowed. Now, should I expect to be wowed by a summer league game?
Probably not. I think I got a little excited, hearing about Brown and
his athleticism, etc, and I probably expected some sort of 360 degree
tomhawk jam. I was impressed when he blocked that shot and almost
decapitated himself on the backboard. He can jump. However, I was very
disappointed in Moiso, I really thought he would've improved since
last year, but apparently he hasn't. Although he did have a decent
game last night, so maybe he just had an off game tonight. 
============================
Now that's the Balz I've come to know and distrust! Hey, the Moiso
thing really bothers me. I really liked the pick last year. It was
difficult for me to watch him be so lost out there. I figured he'd be
better. But even though he didn't put up numbers tonight, he still
looked out of place. Did the guy just lose his confidence? He's got
way too much talent to play the way he has. He should be able to go
out there and play defense around the basket. That doesn't take much
to do. . . well unless you have no knowledge of how to play the game,
which is where Blount is. He tries to block shots and gets out of
position all the time. Same story as last year. 
==========================


from the washington board

===================
its halftime right now...wiz 30 celtics 39 

kwame is playing very good, and is showcasing his mad handles. also he
is settling for the outside quite a bit. he should go inside a little,
but not when that 7 footer from the celts is in there. so he is doing
good. 

everyone else on the other hand...i dunno 

they are very clumsy with the ball, and this new simmons kid hasnt
seem to have done much. joe johnson and joseph forte will be very good
together. thats all i gotta say for now... 

peace 
=====================================

uhhhh yeah the miss handling of the rock is an understatement.
Vanterpool is a point right? I don't think we have a point guard on
this team besides kwame at the moment. Kwame is having a good game
still have not seen anything amazing out of him but i don't expect
that. Kedrick looks great though. So which one gets the knick name KB?

==========================
pretty solid game for the #1 pick. He really is like a gazelle on the
court...he looks and plays like he is 6'8 or something. its crazy.
here are the good points and bad points on Kwame today starting with
the good... 

1) kwame has a stroke. his first 2 buckets were 20 fters with blount
in his face. he also had a pretty jumper from the line, and had great
touch on his free throws. very impressive. 

2) ballhandling was terrific. this kid can dribble, and could play 3
man if he wants to. had a couple of spectacular drives to the hoop,
and he wa fouled on one of them. 

3) rebounding was solid. i wanted him to crash the offensive boards
more, but he didnt because he plays away from the basket. his
defensive rebounding was good. 

4) showed poise. very nonchalant, and got into rhythm quickly.
straight up embarassed his man on the defensive end by swatting a
shot...and didnt say a word. very duncan-like. 

now to the bad.... 

1) he took some bad shots. expected fom a young kid...im not going to
dwell on this. 

2) agressiveness on wanting the ball. i was upset at times because the
frontcourt players failed to give him the ball, and kwame wasnt
aggressive on getting the ball low so he can work. when you are the
best player on the floor, you need to demand the ball, and not be too
unselfish. 

3) low post game-this is pretty much the only thing wrong in kwame's
game...he doesnt want to play with his back to the basket. he looks
almost nervous when he does. thats going to need some work before the
season starts. 

overall kwame was great, and mj did his job as usual in finding and
choosing a great talent... 
==============================
I thought that Vanterpool played well under the circumstances. He had
a couple turnovers, including an unforced one, but in general the
Celtics were playing excellent team defense and knew what they wanted
to do to keep the Wizards out of rythmn. He doesn't really have a
scorer's mentality, but he played good defense what with 6 steals and
all. 

His line: 
Player POS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST PF ST TO BS PTS 
David Vanterpool 18 1-2 0-0 1-1 0 4 4 5 3 6 2 0 3