Re: Mark Berry's fears, etc...

[Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- You wrote:
Why are you harping on this? I think you get my point, no matter how much
you want to pick at it.  I happen to believe the team entered the offseason
with one glaring weaknesses-rebounding, size and strength up front. They
haven't addressed it at all.
--- end of quote ---

Oh, I get your point, I just don't agree with it. I posted Stith's stats to
remind you how modest (at least in terms of numbers) his contribution was. And
that's what hurt the Celtics more than the lack of size and rebounding (but
less than being coached by Pitino) - having their third best scorer average
less than 10 ppg at 40% shooting, resulting in scoring droughts whenever Pierce
and Walker weren't on the floor.  (I don't mean to imply that it's all Stith's
fault, but rather that having him as our 3rd best offensive player is
indicative of our problems on offense).

I also don't completely agree that our rebounding deficiency hasn't been
addressed at all. It has been, at least to some extent, through the addition of
'plus' rebounders at their positions in all three rookies. I bet that we will
be higher than 26th in rebounding next season, even without adding a big man
rebounder. It can be done: the Warriors were 2nd in the league in rebounding,
without having a single player in the top 20 in rebounding. How did they do it?
While the Celtics had 4 players averaging 5 or more rpg, the Warriors had 8,
with a few more averaging around 4 rpg. In our case, once you get past Walker,
Pierce, Pot, and Battie, there's a lot of 1s and 2s in front of player rpg
numbers. Let's hope that Blount's apparent improvement in that area is for
real.  
Kestas      

PS Isn't it interesting that the Celtics are selling out their summer league
games?