Re: Ye olde dark cloud.

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

At 00:10 17/10/01 -0400, Kestas wrote:
>I keep watching his defense and I just don't see anything there. Players
>he's guarding quite often go by him like he was a traffic cone. Is there
>any tangible evidence that our defense is better when Eric is in? I doubt
>it. He can draw fouls on offense, score in the paint   in the right
>circumstances, and hit the occasional three, but that's it. I don't
>understand why he's being guaranteed a starting job.

Thanks everyone for the awesome and varied game analyses. You just don't 
see that many informed perspectives elsewhere.

It really does seem like Eric's "all talk" on defense compared to, say 
Bruce Bowen. I guess good team defense does require communication though. 
But Obie's surely watching film and looking at stats. I'm glad he likes 
Eric's leadership, but eventually its going to sink in that talk is 
cheap.I've never heard any other basketball mind praise Eric's 
defense.  Its fine to take pride in your defense, but you still have to be 
able to stop people.

The emerging pre-season question mark still is "who wants to be the third 
scorer". No one has emerged even to replace Griffin and Stith from the past 
two seasons. The third scorer will be someone not bashful about taking 
12-15 shots per night. I'm glad Joe Johnson was looking a bit for his shot 
last night, even if it wasn't falling (3-11). Forte has demonstrated that 
he doesn't want to be a rookie afterthought, and hopefully he has a 
Dumars-type toughness and court sense.

The second emerging trend (a two game trend to be fair) is the rebounding 
deficit. Obie and Chris Wallace's three-headed monsters were annihilated by 
backups. DC and Magloire had 25 points and 24 boards in 48 minutes, with 10 
offensive boards and 4 blocks, while Batgirl and "Shaw Shaq" responded with 
7 boards in 45 minutes. Its "been there, done that" from last season. This 
problem really went unaddressed. Plus you have an additional non-factor 
rebounder (Eric Williams) in the starting lineup. Hopefully we'll see a 
breakout game tonight against Cleveland from our centers.

In light of the above two exhibition season issues, its a shame we couldn't 
have kept Bruce Bowen and Danny Fortson. Bowen couldn't take Rick's 
personality, and Fortson didn't fit the "headless chicken" defensive system 
but has been productive elsewhere. Rick Fox and David Wesley also probably 
would have added maturity and a few more wins to past teams. IMO we clearly 
don't have four role playes of that quality surrounding the two captains 
and three rookies.

Joe

Question. How did Paul Pierce (19 minutes) look healthwise last night? 
Also, can someone kindly remind me how to filter unwanted e-mail messages? 
I use Eudora.

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