Re: [...] Re: Adrian Griffin signs with Mavs

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

At 07:20 PM 7/28/01, bird wrote:
>>I can understand why people want to root for Griffin, because he's got a
>>great story. Working out of the CBA despite his lack of athleticism,
>>playing for the minimum, a humble and likeable personality, etc. But on the
>>court, he had two good months, got injured, and was not really an NBA
>>caliber player for the rest of his two years here.
>
>Sure, all that you say it true here, but if Griffin has it in him to 
>continue those "two good months" when he was a catalyst for the team, 
>doing little things, shutting down opponent's scorers at the end of games,
>  picking pockets, etc., over the next few years then he'd be an asset to 
> our team.

Yes, I agree. But most of our players have had excellent two month 
stretches in their careers, only to fall back. These guys get blasted. For 
instance, Battie was doing quite well in the two months before his injury 
last season (8 ppg, 7+ rpg, 1.9 bpg, 55% fg) but the list is mostly writing 
him off. I think the fact that he was a high draft pick, has a fairly big 
contract, and dragged a cop with his car has something to do with this. 
People want to believe that Griffin's going to return to his old school 
form because he's a good guy with a good story. I don't know if people want 
to believe that Kenny Anderson could have a better year than last year 
because he's a selfish, overpaid underachiever who tends to say dumb things 
to the media. But only a year ago he played an entire season, averaged 14 
ppg and 5 apg and shot 39% from 3 pt range. Can you imagine how we'd be 
celebrating if we got that from our overachieving minimum wage Milt 
Palacio? I think that off the court stuff like salaries and media quotes 
influences the opinions of basketball talent quite a bit. That's why we're 
sad to see Griffin cut even though there's only a possibility that he could 
regain his form and beat out two lottery picks to boot, while some would 
probably love to see Kenny Anderson get cut or bought out just to open a 
roster spot for El-Amin.

> From my perspective, though. having to keep EWilliams and Wallah around 
> blows.  I'd rather have AG (or Stith) around instead.  Not to mention 
> Kenny and Moiso, though there's always potential with the latter.  I 
> guess I'm just decrying the need to let guys go who might be better than 
> what we have to keep.

I'm actually wondering whether Jim O'Brien values McCarty. He gave him more 
minutes as the season wound down, praised him for his energy, and next year 
he intends to press more. I have this eerie vision of him saying next year, 
"We love continuity, and Walter has been with this team for five years, and 
before that for four years at Kentucky. We're limited by the luxury tax but 
we're going to do what we can to retain Walter." The thing is, he fills a 
role in the O'Brien offense, as a 3 point shooting power forward, when 
Antoine is on the bench. I've mentioned before that the 4 needs to be able 
to shoot 3's in this offense because Pierce posts up so much. I think 
that's why guys like Austin Croshere and Troy Murphy interested the C's. 
I'm just hoping they find someone that fills that role better than McCarty 
does.

Eric Williams, on the other hand, doesn't really give you anything that 
Stith couldn't do better. I'm more confident in Stith's abilities than 
Griffin's here though, because he's done it over a much longer career and 
has more complementary skills in the current, "Pierce post up" offense. But 
it looks like we're going to have to live with Eric Williams instead. 
Hopefully with Joe Johnson looking like a full time starter early in the 
season, it won't be that big a deal. I'd rather see Kedrick Brown and Joe 
Forte getting big backup minutes than Williams or Stith though, even if it 
hurts the team's win total in the short term.

Alex