RE: NJ-Philly trade

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Cecil wrote:

** I think what is being overlooked, Mark, is that Paul/Antoine had
virtually no inside presence last year.  It is more than a tad premature to
suggest that they will refuse to pass the ball if someone is open inside.
Our two young stars have made progress each of the past few seasons and it
makes little sense to have acquired Baker and not utilize his offensive
strength inside.  Also, they are intelligent enough to know that if Baker is
scoring with any degree of proficiency, they themselves will see less double
and triple team efforts.

I don't think you are giving them enough credit.


--- end --- 

Maybe you're right, Cecil. I hope so. But I haven't seen them coexist with
another scorer yet. Part of it is the offense. It's just "take turns
isolating Walker or Pierce..." The only shots other players get are when
Walker or Pierce are double-teamed and they pass the ball to someone for a
jump shot.

Maybe that's the only way the Celts can win. I actually give Larry Brown a
lot of credit for adjusting the way he coaches-in fact, everything he
believes about good basketball-to Iverson's game. That's what he has done,
and it has worked. Now he's trying to force Iverson to adjust to Brown's
vision of basketball. I don't think it will work. Iverson won't adjust.
Pierce and Walker didn't adjust to Pitino's vision of basketball. Obie
adjusted to them.

Remember, Pierce and Walker didn't acquire Baker. So even if it may not make
much sense to us or Chris Wallace to acquire Baker and not make him a large
part of the offense, I'm not so sure it's as clear-cut to Pierce and Walker.
And they've shown no understanding yet that the best way to beat a double-
or triple-team is to let the open man beat it.

And I'm not even sure it's Pierce and Walker, entirely. A large part of it
is Obie. His idea of offense was to give Pierce and Walker absolute freedom
and to tell the other players to stand around the 3-point line and wait for
the occasional kick-out. He went to the ECF doing that. I happen to believe
they went to the ECF thanks to defense and in spite of the lousy offense,
but I'm not so sure Obie feels the same way. He may very well feel like, "if
it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I don't know. I'm just saying I don't think it's a good fit, just like I
don't think Van Horn and MacCullouch are good fits in Philly.

Mark