Re: Obie did it

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

>From: Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu (Kestutis Kveraga)
>
>That reminds me: Obie's been saying that when Battie comes back, 
>he'll play behind Blount and Pot in the three-headed center 
>rotation. My question is, why not at PF? He's a natural PF, and the 
>C's are missing a PF. It seems like a no-brainer.

I think they're expecting Battie back for maybe the last ten games or 
so (plus playoffs, should the dream come true).  While I'm squarely 
in the "move Walker to SF" camp, and I'd love to see Battie share 
time at power forward, I doubt bringing back Battie for ten games and 
inserting him in at starting 4 would work well.  I have hope that 
we'll see a bigger lineup next year (we need to pick up a decent big 
body), but I've been saying that for three years now, so I won't hold 
my breath.  Battie's injury is the kind of thing that can derail 
these experiments, creating the situation where Walker is our 
"default" power forward.

If Pitino was still in power, I'd lay money down that Walker would 
play PF and PF only (occasionally at the point?) for the entire year 
next season, but Obie's just different enough (though the sub 
patterns last night were Poultrinoesque, to be sure) to give me hope 
that we'll see Antoine at SF instead.  Maybe.

>In the meantime, he's been subbing in McCarty there, whose only 
>contribution is the cooling provided by his flailing arms and an 
>occasional steal. Why not try Moiso until Battie comes back? I know 
>he's clueless now, but at least he's got potential

Ain't gonna win the game with potential.  McCarty started getting 
minutes when Potapenko and Blount get into foul trouble (foul 
trouble?  what foul trouble?  I say leave them in there and only use 
Wallah when one of the others actually fouls out), and Obie has 
seemed to take a liking to McCarty's play while pressing.  And 
McCarty made some good plays -- you just have to forget about the 
bone-headed mistakes he makes on the court.

If you're suggesting that Moiso play as the third-string center, 
well, maybe I could go for that.  McCarty's useless, but the thing 
with Mosio is he may be useless, too.  The dilemma is, you've got to 
find out, but maybe not during a playoff push.

Regards,

Bill

The Celtic "Tird", as always