Re: Tinsley

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

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> There are questions about Haywood. If there weren't, he'd be the no-brainer
> first pick in the draft. He has that kind of physical ability. But the knock
> is he's inconsistent and doesn't always give great effort. I tend to side
> with the big guy in most of these cases in college, because at that level
> guards still dominate the ball. Carolina has Joseph Forte and he is the
> focus of that offense. Haywood sometimes is forgotten. Also, most teams play
> a zone against Carolina because of Haywood and big Kris Lang inside, and
> Carolina (like most college teams) attacks the zone by finding open
> shooters. Makes sense when that 3-point line is so close. But it means
> Haywood doesn't get many touches. Anyway, he'll be long gone before the
> Celtics pick.
>
> This is shaping up as a strong group of centers, but they all come with
> question marks. Yao Ming may be the best of the bunch, but can we be sure
> since his competition is the Chinese leagues? Is he just Shawn Bradley? Eddy
> Curry seems to have Shaq-like physical ability and incredible skills, but
> he's a high schooler. Ditto Dasagna Diop and Tyson Chandler. Arizona's Loren
> Woods would have been a top-five pick last year, but this year seemed soft,
> disinterested and may have played himself out of the lottery. And he's
> rail-thin to boot. Chris Marcus????? Who knows? I'm still hoping one of
> these guys falls to the Celts, and it seems likely to happen.
>
> As for the point guards, I may be the only guy in America not completely
> sold on Duke's Jason Williams. He's a great shooter, but he plays a little
> too much like a shooting guard for my liking. Takes a lot of quick
> three-pointers, sometimes doesn't get his teammates involved, treats
> penetration like a last option. I think he'll be a good pro, but I don't
> think he's a classic point guard. I don't know enough about Tinsley to
> comment. Same with Tito Maddox (Fresno St.). Frank Williams reminds me a
> little of Eric Barkley, the St. John's PG who fell to Portland at the end of
> the first round last year--good leader, does everything well but nothing
> exceptionally well. Omar Cook may be the best passer of the bunch, but he
> can't shoot at all and seems awfully small.
>
> The bottom line is take the best player available. Hopefully, that
> translates to one of the centers and a point guard, but you shouldn't pass
> up a talented wing player like Jason Richardson or Gerald Wallace if they
> fall in your lap.
>
> Mark

Great post, thanks. My impression is that all the prep centers have failed to
live up to their pre-senior year hype. Curry hasn't played all that well in
tournament games, and certainly hasn't dominated. Tyson Chandler has been even
more of a letdown, even though he is the one more likely to declare for the
draft. I think he's got a long road ahead of him, along the lines of Jermaine
O'Neil's pro career, because he's skinny and clueless about low post moves. I'd
love to watch Chris Marcus play to try in my amateurish way to guess at his
upside...imagine not picking up a basketball until your senior year in high
school! Now that Zhi Zhi Wang got the greenlight for the NBA, I think that Yao
Ming might have the number one spot locked down. A healthy version of Bill
Walton was arguably the greatest joy to watch in sports.  Yao Ming is not a
Shawn Bradley in terms of body type, but a young Sabonis or Walton.  I have no
idea what his character or temperament is though. Those kinds of things really
do matter as far as I'm concerned as a fan (I'm thinking of take-no-prisoners
overachievers like Dave Cowens and even Antoine in his own peculiar way). I've
been waiting all my life for an Asian guy to make the NBA, and I figure why not
Boston since we were the first team to draft and sign an African-American
player. But that's a long shot, and I'd much rather we made the playoffs at this
point.