Re: Tinsley, Parker and the "braintrust"

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

> Paul M. says the current "braintrust" brought in more talent in six months
> than Pitino did in four years... but the picks that netted Brown and Forte
> were acquired under Pitino's watch. If you don't want to give Pitino
credit
> for Paul Pierce (a no-brainer pick),

OK, I'll play hard ball. Let's give Pitino credit for picking Pierce. Why
shouldn't we. But he wasn't, thankfully, in the room when they actually
chose Johnson. For all we know he would've picked Zach Randolph. I mean,
come on, Jerome Moiso? So why not say the Johnson pick ties the score: The
Genius 1 - The Braintrust 1. Erick Strickland makes it 2-1 in favor of the
Braintrust. The signing of Walter McCarty should make the score 20-1 in
favor of the Braintrust but I'll let it go.

Paul M.




then it's hard to give the "braintrust"
> credit for Joe Johnson. So let's judge them on the other picks, Kedrick
> Brown and Joe Forte. I'd say the jury remains very much out on those
> selections.
>
> I'm not giving up on Brown and Forte. Not at all. But this team has a lot
of
> needs that weren't filled either in the draft, free agency or through
> trades. The reason given was that the players selected were vastly better
> than anyone else on the board. I guess we'll see, but the early returns
> aren't good.
>
> Mark
>
> P.S. I thought Jordan's remarks on Antoine were pretty accurate (except
for
> the part about being "more talented than Bird"-please). Like Josh said, we
> can debate Antoine till the end of time (Joe, I'll add your e-mail address
> to my will... I suggest you do likewise with mine), but it boils down to
one
> of three positions: 1. You accept Antoine for what he is and believe his
> faults would disappear with better teammates (Paul M., Alex); 2. You
believe
> Antoine eventually will "get it" and are willing to wait; 3. You either
> don't believe Antoine will "get it" or after five years are unwilling to
> wait any longer. Count me in this group. And as Josh points out,
advocating
> trading Antoine isn't saying "the team would be better off without him."
> It's saying the team could be better with the players you receive in
return
> for Antoine. And his list, which I thought was pretty good, includes some
> very good players.