Re: Tinsley, Parker and the "braintrust"

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Who knows what Pitino would have done with the 10th pick. That's not the
point. Did Pitino screw up the Moiso pick? Sure seems like it. Did the
"braintrust" screw up the 11 and 21 picks? We don't know yet, but Tinsley or
Parker wouldn't be sitting on the injured list and sixth on the depth chart
right now. As for Strickland, you're a much bigger fan than I am. He's a
nice player. He'll have to show me something to merit even a favorable
comparison to Bryant Stith or Adrian Griffin.

But the point of the post wasn't about Pitino vs. the "braintrust." Pitino's
personnel moves really are beyond defense. He was a terrible GM. But just
because the "braintrust" isn't Pitino, it doesn't make it better. I've
criticized them for doing nothing around the edges to help this team this
year. I still feel like they missed some opportunities. But we all operated
on the assumption that they scored big-time in the draft. Well, what if that
assumption is wrong? What if they come out of those three picks with Joe
Johnson (a serious player), Kedrick Brown (who really knows?) and Joe Forte,
all of whom play the same position and the same position as Paul Pierce? And
they passed on Tinsley, Parker, Murphy and the like, all of whom seem to
fill more of a need and-based on VERY early accounts-may be better players.
And when they clear a roster spot to add a player, they add another
undersized shooting guard who really isn't a point guard.

Paul, I know you're willing to give the "braintrust," Walker and the rest a
long leash at this point because you believe Pitino screwed things up so
much they deserve a chance to straighten it out. That's fair. I'm just
looking at the evidence (admittedly limited) that's there. I have concerns.
No one had a problem blasting Moiso from the start and Pitino for taking
him. I'm just pointing out that the team may have made a couple of mistakes
in this draft as well. Time will tell.

Mark

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Paul M. wrote:

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.