Re: [...] Ye olde dark cloud.

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

> From: JB <JBMetzEA@AOL.com>
>
>    I'm not questioning Antoine's limitations or talents, as may be the 
> case
> of these same stated qualities, from the two eyes of any beholder, but 
> only
> the idea that he has to initiate the offense. Let him play facing the
> basket, draw in and out as the defense allows, by all means, just get him
> the hell away from the initial thrust of the offense.

Right, but I still don't see why this is such a problem. Like I said, the 
more he and Pierce touch the ball (and spread it around, to be sure) the 
better for the team.

>    I'm not thrilled with Anderson and not in love with El-Amin by any 
> means,
> but I'm sick of Walker the de-facto point guard and my observation is, 
> that
> the team plays better when Anderson runs the break and creates the 
> offense.
> Let Walker get his off the flow of the game and I believe the team will be
> much more effective. Kenny may not be great, but he's all we've got.
>    El-Amin, showed at Shaw's that he was a pure point guard who could
> initiate offense. When he started taking minutes from Palacio and running
> the offense, the team started to play well. Again, I'm not in love with
> Khalid. Jaques Vaughn would have done as nicely, thank you, or any other
> distributing point guard, but I'm not backing down on the real need of 
> this
> team.
>    You can have Milt, but I'd love to be invited to that "Bar-B-Que."

Sure, sure, bring a friend.  You keep saying you're not in love with 
Khalid, but you keep mentioning him too.  Is it a bit like in third grade 
when you bugged the girl you liked, putting her hair in the inkwell, 
tugging on pigtails, that sort of thing?  Methinks you protest too much.  
Seriously, I'm still not convinced the team needs a "true point guard".  
Some people still want to assign traditional roles to players on the team 
when those players do not feel comfortable in those roles.  It's not going 
to work.  Sure, the team plays well when Kenny Anderson  "runs the break 
and creates the offense" but I don't see this all that often.  Counting on 
that to happen is looking for a disaster, I think.

>    Perhaps not, but I'll throw another paranoid delusion at you: Do you
> think it's to take attention away from the fact that we drafted three wing
> players, when we needed help at point and center? With Forte playing 
> point,
> it looks like we have a position for each of the rookies. If Herren (or 
> any
> acquired point guard) played well, there would be very few minutes for
> either Brown or Forte.
>    Anyway, so you tell me why Herren isn't playing, but there are minutes
> for "Buggs" McCarty and Blount?

I thought I already did this, JB.  He's the 12th man.  And a point guard.  
The _fourth-string_ point guard.  I don't understand why you think he 
ought to be getting playing time over guys at different positions.  And I'
m just not buying the conspiracy theory.

> Show me a patch of time where Antoine _doesn't_ meet the guy bringing up
> the ball at the arc and get the pass.
> The Celtic "Tird"
>         *****************
>    Early in the fourth period last night. He went back to the top of the
> circle after Palacio subbed for Anderson and our little run came down 
> like a
> Broadway show that lost it's backers.

This may boil down to a matter of perception, because, as I've said, I 
didn't see Kenny doing anything of the sort at that point in the game, and 
I didn't tape the game (as I normally do) to check it out now.  But even 
if it did, from watching Kenny in Portland _and_ with the Celtics, I can 
safely say one good quarter from Kenny does not a season make.

Regards,

(The Celtic "Tird")