Re: Baron Davis backs it up

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

Joe wrote:

p.s. Perhaps Kestas can help out here, but how many calories do athletes 
burn off in a day compared to average people. I figure around 7000 calories 
a day? I guess they could easily work off a 260 calorie donut (but maybe 
not a dozen). I'm trying to convince myself I'm overreacting on this whole 
Krispy Kreme thing. Their Web site says each donut contains 110-130 fat 
calories on average.

---end---

OK Joe, you've officially surpassed me as the most intense Celtics fan on
the planet. The fact that you checked the Krispy Kreme Web site, well...
that just cracks me up.

But I understand where you're coming from. To me it's just another example
of making me feel like I care more about it than they do. Is this one Krispy
Kreme binge going to change anything? No, but like you said, you hear all
summer about how hard they're working and how dedicated they are to being in
shape and all that crap, and they leave Charlotte for a midnight donut binge
the night before the second half of a back-to-back. It's just deflating. You
feel like they just don't get it.

Now, on to other things... Everyone is so concerned about waiting for a
young big man to develop, but am I the only one who is starting to feel like
it's going to take a while for our rookie swingmen? At the risk of being
publicly flogged, I'm going to say that Joe Johnson has been a
disappointment. I still think he's going to be pretty good, but he has a
long way to go. Those of us expecting a Pierce-like rookie season are in for
a huge wake-up call. We just haven't seen much of a contribution from any of
them, and this is preseason. What's going to happen when they're not matched
up against backups and the intensity cranks up? They're going to see some
action, because they have to, but I'm not sold on them making any kind of
difference at all.

I'm choosing not to worry about Pierce and Walker, because if we have to
worry about them, we might as well make our reservations for the draft
lottery right now. Neither of them is playing well, but I have to assume
they will at least match last season's performance.

The rest of the roster is the real worry. The centers seem worse. Eric
Williams is seeing too many minutes. Kenny is Kenny. Milt is a
third-stringer who will (or should) start for the Celts. The offense seems
to have made no adjustments to the new rules. Teams aren't playing true
zones, but they're certainly using the rules to adjust to the simplistic
offense the Celts like to run. The rebounding is as bad as I feared.

It's only preseason. I vividly remember the preseason shellackings we gave
the Raptors a couple of years ago, only to be wiped out by them in the
regular-season opener. It can happen. But I'm worried, probably because Obie
has tried to play these games like regular-season games and they're still
not playing well. If they play like this, we may not need to trade for an
impact big man-we will be in position to hope for Yao Ming next June. Geez,
I hope these games are an aberration. 

Mark