Lots of positives last night

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

Didn't see the whole game, but based on what I saw and the stories/box
score, there were a lot of encouraging signs.

1.	Antoine played like we dream of Antoine playing... efficient
scoring, unselfish, 26 points and 10 assists on 17 field goal attempts?
That's fantastic.
2.	Team rebounding... Everyone hit the boards. If Paul and Antoine
combine for 16 rebounds and 16 assists every night, this team will do fine.
3.	Ball movement... Much, much improved. 26 assists for the team,
improved (slightly) field goal percentage. Positive signs.
4.	Point guards... Milt was better. He had been a real concern. He's
not great, but last night at least he wasn't bad. Herren showed why I'm
hesitant to give up on him. He hasn't played at all this preseason (OK, 8
minutes), yet he really understands the importance of moving the ball. He
only had one assist, but in the halfcourt, the ball just doesn't stay in his
hands long. He's always swinging it to the weak side of the floor. That's
how you beat half-court defenses. The whole team did a better job of this
last night. Just isolating or posting up a man on one side of the floor and
calling it an offense makes it easy on the defense. They only have to defend
half the floor. Anyway, I'll make another point about Herren at the end of
this post.
5.	Joe Johnson looked more comfortable... He's not Paul Pierce and he's
not going to have that kind of impact, but he's the one rookie ready to play
in the regular rotation. Still has a way to go, but this was a good step.

OK, a few random thoughts... Is it just a coincidence that the offense seems
to run better the first time Kenny isn't involved? Was it just a coincidence
that the team seemed to play better last year without Kenny? All the point
guards suck, but I said it last year and I still believe it-Kenny not only
sucks, he brings the energy level of the whole team down. Is that Derrick
Coleman trade still on the table? What a missed opportunity that was. If
nothing else, our "braintrust" should have understood that a cancerous big
man has more trade value than a cancerous point guard (Philly is trying to
deal for Coleman).... On Herren-is anyone else the least bit bothered by the
way this third point guard thing was handled? We've been over the El-Amin
thing. They apparently liked him more than Herren, but lost him because they
were cheap. There's no other way to cut it. Then they sign Herren as an
"emergency" point guard when Randy Brown goes down, only to bury him on the
bench while giving the PG minutes to Kenny, Palacio and Forte. Fine. Only
now they see what everyone else already knew-Forte isn't a point guard
(yet). So the inevitable happens (Kenny gets hurt), and we're left with Milt
and... Chris Herren. Apparently they know Herren is a better PG than Forte,
but they couldn't wait to cut the guy before Kenny got hurt. Why are they so
determined to keep that 15th roster spot open? They're not using it on
another player, that much is clear. It's just pinching pennies. Please don't
make this about Herren. It's not. I don't care if it's Herren, El-Amin or
whoever. What they did smacks of a decision made to justify a draft pick
(and save money). I have no problem with developing Forte, but are they
really surprised that Kenny is hurt (or will be)? Now, if they want to play
Antoine at PG in emergency situations and cut Herren, fine. But that whole
Antoine at PG experiment seems to have been permanently shelved. Whatever.
Just not wild about the way the whole thing was handled.

But that rant shouldn't overshadow an improved performance by Antoine and
the whole team. Let's hope they carry that kind of play into the season.

Mark