Re: The Walker debate

["pmaurice" <damekmo@teleport.com>]

Alex wrote:

> 3. What should Walker's role be on the current Celtics team?
>
> I think that the team last year needed Walker to score 23+ ppg, as
> inefficient as he was, regardless of his inefficiency. Compared to the
year
> before, the team lost Kenny Anderson who scored over 14 ppg and was
playing
> offensively weak players Palacio and Blount for much of the year. Having
> Walker throw up 3's, as aesthetically displeasing as it is, was better
than
> the alternatives. When O'Brien took over, Walker shot many more 3's,
scored
> more, and the team won more.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. However, I don't see why you assume the
following.

> On the current team, you now have Anderson back and Joe Johnson available.
> I believe that the team is closer to what I described in (2a) above than
> (2b), and that is what Wallace is shooting for. So far, Walker is
operating
> under last year's approach and heaving up a ton of shots (leading the
> league). Amazingly, he's shooting 20% from two point range compared to 40%
> from three point range. Obviously he's not making optimal shooting
> decisions and you can't really blame it on O'Brien.

You aren't saying that Antoine is wrong to play under last year's approach,
are you? What this team needs is a player who can "consistently" contribute
on the offensive end to help Antoine and Paul. Someone you know can go out
and give you 15 points every night. Will it happen every night? Probably
not, but if you had someone you knew could do it more often than not,
someone who was at least an offensive threat to do it,  you could develop a
game plan to accomodate a third scorer. At this point in Kenny's carreer
anybody who actually coached him and created a game plan, every night, that
depended on Kenny to put up something near 15 points a game should lose
their job. He's not a threat do it, nobody else on the team is, and to be
honest the one thing an opposing team wants is for Kenny Anderson and Joe
Johnson to get more shots. The quote from O'Brien in the Herald says it all.
They want wins, they want to make the playoffs and if this teams offense is
run the way it should be and they get the shots they want then Antoine and
Paul will get 30 shots each. I think that's an exagerration for effect, but
you get the picture. That doesn't tell me that he believes Kenny is the
third scorer or that Joe Johnson is ready. I just think that if you're
looking for the third scorer on this team, he isn't there yet. More
importantly, the people in charge don't believe he's there yet. O'Brien is
still playing as if it's last year because that's still the best way for
this team to win.

> Of course, it's only three games into the season. Johnson is still
> developing and Anderson seems less inclined to shoot this year, which is
> part of the reason why Walker may feel compelled to continue shooting.

Or maybe they just don't think Kenny is the third scorer they're looking for
so unless he's red hot they don't want him to be more inclined to shoot.

Paul M.