SI analysis -- good stuff

["Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@nyc.rr.com>]

Some people have mentioned the SI player ranking, but far
more interesting to me was the pro scouts take on every team.
Our was very interesting, and was very revealing to me, since
very little of it has been heard before in the Boston media.  I
wish this was more of this kind of thing on the net:

An opposing team's scout sizes up the Celtics
"They're still going to have problems inside. To me their best center
is Vitaly Potapenko , who would be a backup for a lot of teams.
Tony Battie is a decent weakside shot blocker, but he's not good
guarding his own guy. ... I suppose they're going to go to the full-court
or half-court trap more to get the ball out of the opposing point guard's
hands. They don't want teams running plays and executing in the post,
where they're vulnerable. ... When the Celtics post up, they do it quickly
with Antoine Walker slicing to the basket. He doesn't like to settle in the
low box because he's not explosive going through people. ... Paul
Pierce can shoot the three and he can drive to the basket, but what
sets him apart is his in-between game -- he can pull up for that medium-range
shot or draw the defenders and pass. He plays with his head up....
I'm not a big Kenny Anderson guy, but it doesn't help him that the ball
is in Antoine's hands so much. Kenny's at his best when he's driving
and dishing off to a teammate. When Antoine's running the play, Kenny
becomes a perimeter shooter, and he isn't good at it. ... It was harder
to prepare for them under Rick Pitino because he was so anal with his
continuity plays; he wanted the ball to go through three players before
they took a shot. It was like he'd call those things to show other coaches
that he could execute such a complicated play. In the meantime Walker
would be standing there with an open shot thinking, Are we running this
play to give you some kind of high, or do you want me to get us a bucket?"

The other stuff is good, too:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/features/2001/si_preview/celt
ics/

Josh