Re: prediction and other thoughts

["Cecil Wright" <cecil@hfx.eastlink.ca>]

The thing is...this will not stop the Butch-from-the-Cape wannabees from
dissing Walker.  Remember last year when everyone criticized him for
shooting too many 3s?  Obie clearly stated that he wanted Toine shooting the
3 alot.  So he does what the coach wants and he is blasted by the
you-know-whos.

If this quote from Obie goes unmentioned later this year when Toine fires
away again, those of you who criticize will have the long term memory of a
field mouse.

Cecil (43-41)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kestas" <Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 7:28 PM
Subject: prediction and other thoughts


> ' ``We need mobility at the 4 and a good ballhandler, and I don't think at
> this point in time that our team is comfortable with two big guys playing
> together,'' O'Brien said. ``I think we are vulnerable to being pressed and
> vulnerable to having Paul trapped in the low post with those guys. I
always
> prefer to have four 3-point shooters on the court at one time. And the
> other reason is that I think that Eric is a guy that I want to manufacture
> as many minutes as possible to have him on the court.'' '
>
> When I read this paragraph, all my fears about JOB's coaching philosophy
> seemed to be confirmed at once. "There goes the season", I thought.  Let's
> play four shooting guards with a third-string C/PF who can't rebound,
while
> substituting a 9 rpg rebounder with a 2 rpg rebounder at PF. If playing
> Blount/Pot and Williams at C and PF is not an invitation to get murdered
on
> the boards, I don't know what is.
>
> Furthermore, Obie wants four 3-point shooters on the court at all times.
> We have so many proven high-% 3-point shooters on this team that we should
> just let'em fly without worrying about offensive rebounding - there will
> hardly be any rebounds to collect, given our deadly accuracy. On the
> defensive end, we don't have to worry about rebounding either, as Eric
"The
> Terminator" Williams won't even allow the opponent to get a shot off on
> most possessions, if you buy into Obie's propaganda.
>
> Seriously, I don't think Eric Williams is as bad a player as his stats
> suggest, and could be useful in limited circumstances. But come on - now
> he's so good that he's going to play power forward at 6-7 and 220, in
> addition to SG and SF?! Gimme a break. I know this is only going to be for
> a few minutes a game, but the very fact is an indictment of either Obie's
> basketball philosophy, Celtics management's criminal refusal to obtain a
> servicable backup PF in the offseason, or, most likely, both.
>
> ' ``There's nothing that [Battie] has done better than the other two,
other
> than the fact that when he's on the court, we keep a plus-minus system and
> he's done a good job,'' O'Brien said. ``He has the highest plus-minus of
> any of our centers.'
>
> This plus/minus issue has been discussed on the list before. While I have
> no quarrel with Battie's starting (the alternatives aren't exactly
> appealing), I wonder whether the Celtics staff understand that the measure
> is likely to be meaningless if you don't control for important variables
> either experimentally or statistically - like whom the player is playing
> with and against while hes' being rated. In Battie's case it doesn't
matter
> - we already know that he's better than Pot and Blount without any stats.
> But I wonder if the Phoenix-like rise of Eric's stock  is not attributable
> to the same tea-leaves reading of simplistically used statistics? Williams
> plays with the starters a lot, as he's been named a starter himself.
> However, if you played ME  with the starters, and played Michael Jordan
> with Blount, Salvadori, McCarty, and Herren, I would probably have a
better
> +/- rating than Jordan, through no agency of my own.
>
> With all that said, there are some reasons for guarded optimism. Walker is
> a better, more mature player than last season.  Battie -  the only
> talented, if incomplete, big guy on the team - is back. Palacio can shoot
> now.  The combined contribution of the rookies should surpass that  by
> Stith, Griffin and Carr even this year. Heck, even Kenny and Eric are
> better than last season, for what it's worth (not much).  I've seen
> attempts at fast break after a 3.5-year-long nuclear winter.  They all
seem
> to love Obie, his wacky basketball philosophy notwithstanding, as well as
> each other, and that's more important in the NBA than any X's and O's, as
> we know.  If there are no major injuries, and the lovefest continues, I
> predict they will do as well as they have so far in Obie's reign - .500
> ball and thus a 41-41 record.
> Kestas