Re: Why didn't Vitaly play?

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

The Celtics are 25th in shot blocking, which I assume puts a ton of 
pressure on the perimeter defenders (since they have to stop the drive). So 
far Battie and Potapenko are averaging a grand total of 0.2 blocks per game 
in 34 mpg. In fact, Vitaly hasn't blocked a shot all season.

Blount is second on the team in blocks (tied with Walker) at 0.8 in 16 mpg. 
With starter minutes, he's the only guy we have that could average around 2 
blocks per game.

Blount's rebounds-per-48 minutes is rather poor, whereas Vitaly's is sky 
high right now (in the top five in the league if he qualified based on PT).

Battie and Vitaly are averaging better than a double-double (including 4.8 
offensive boards) in just 34 minutes per game. Of course, the "Boston's all 
set with our three-headed center" philosophy (along with the "antoine 
anti-defamation league" phenomenon) are, at least from the point of view of 
some fans, two of the stranger dogma preached as gospel by Obie and Wallace.

The jury's out, but so far I'd suppose we're probably somewhere in the 
middle class of per-48-minute production from the center position. That's 
probably all we need, actually, assuming a second rookie develops into a 
solid contributor by the second half of the year.

If Vitaly is ultimately traded, I think in addition to whatever in the 
world we get for him (Swift sounds great) we better have a third center in 
mind given Battie's injury history.

Maybe there's a Blount-type project in the CBA. Wouldn't it be ironic if we 
saved Ernest Brown from purgatory? ;-)

I don't want to drag this out beyond its shelf life, but long-time Obie 
project and Antoine best friend Nazr Mohammed is averaging 15 points and 10 
boards for the Hawks (and 25ppg 12 rpg in the last two outings) on only 10 
FG attempts per game. Geez, if only Boston had a third high percentage 
scorer and low post threat who could be convinced to play here, we'd be a 
serious playoff team. :-)

That's another question I'd like Josh to pose to Chris Wallace, although I 
can already guess exactly what his answer would be.

Joe

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