Re: Antoine

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

Then, to be fair Mark, you shouldn't expect an increase in his rebounds if
you are going to judge him by those standards, right?

He is what he is.

Cecil



----- Original Message -----
From: "Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>
To: <Celtics@igtc.com>; <Celtics-Digest@igtc.com>
Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 9:31 AM
Subject: RE: Antoine


> Josh, I couldn't disagree more. This team is at its best when Antoine is
> penetrating and passing and hitting the boards. If you want lots of points
> from Antoine, you're going to need lots of shots. He's never going to
shoot
> a high percentage or get to the line enough to justify those shots. When
it
> was the Antoine and Paul show, you could excuse some of it. But now there
> are other options on this team. Continued indiscriminate bombing from
> Antoine is the LAST thing this team needs.
>
> You speculate Antoine has been hurt. Maybe, but we've had no indication.
He
> has been playing lousy lately. He was better yesterday and seemed to be in
> "passing mode" which is all I'm going to ask at this point. He's going to
> make so  many bad decisions on shots that I'm going to have to hold my
nose
> and my tongue. If he just passes the ball, I'll settle. His rebounding
> really has dropped off. In my opinion, this mini-slump has coincided
pretty
> closely with "ball-hogging/no-rebounding" Antoine.
>
> Is it fair to lump the blame on him? Probably not. But he's the de facto
> point guard on this team, like it or not. They're an undersized team that
> refuses to run, and in the half-court, Antoine is the point guard. He may
> not be labeled that, but he acts as that. It's his job to initiate the
> offense. That's why all those comparisons of Antoine's assists to other
> power forwards ring so hollow with me. He's a power forward in name only.
He
> operates as this team's point guard in the half-court. When he's doing it
> unselfishly, it can be beautiful to watch. But too often his "initiating
the
> offense" means jacking a three before anyone else touches it. He averages
> about 5 assists per game? Is that satisfactory for a 43 minute-per-game
> point guard in the NBA?
>
> Yesterday was another 7-for-21, 1-for-9 on threes, no free throws game for
> Antoine. That's terrible. But he moved the ball and the other offensive
> players (and there are plenty now) carried the load. Antoine should have
> seen how effective he could be in a distributor's role in the blowouts of
> Orlando and Detroit, but that was yet another lesson lost on the guy.
>
> Boston fans appreciate intelligent basketball and hustle, and even the
> watered-down corporate crowds in the Fleet Center know a transition
> 3-pointer with no rebounders and a lane to the basket is a dumb, dumb
shot.
> They're a specialty of Antoine's. He makes so many dumb decisions, even my
> wife notices. She's no Celtics fan, but she used to play basketball
> (all-league in high school FWIW), and when she watches the games with me
> she's always saying "What was that??!!!" or "Why did he do that??!!" You
can
> guess my answer.
>
> The sad thing is Antoine controls things so much that he remains the key.
If
> he's in passing mode, this team can make a long playoff run. If he's not,
> they're a quick out. I've been discouraged lately because he definitely
> hasn't been in passing mode. Maybe yesterday was the day things click, but
> I've stopped hoping for any kind of consistency from Antoine.
>
> Mark
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: Celtics-Digest-Owner@igtc.com [mailto:Celtics-Digest-Owner@igtc.com]
>
> Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 11:50 AM
> To: Celtics-Digest@igtc.com
> Subject: The Boston Celtics Mailing List Digest V9 #103
>
>
>
> Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 23:52:37 -0500
> From: "Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@nyc.rr.com>
> Subject: re: Antoine
>
> This is becoming Bob's theme of themes, and may even be true to an extent,
> but I think Antoine's recent performances belie it somewhat.  Twon has
> clearly not been feeling himself, as evidenced by his 1-7 game against
> Dallas and his many missed open looks today.  Although the Celtics won,
> there is no doubt that in the long run they need Antoine to hit at least
> some of his shots.  His passing is key, but I don't see him playing
> effectively for the Celtics in a pure "point forward" role.  His major
value
> is as an offensive player, and that means shooting and scoring as much as
> passing and rebounding, if not much more so.
> Josh