Re: [Celtics' Stuff Rebounds and Tony Battie

[Kim Malo <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:31 PM 12/9/02 +0200, hironaka@nomade.fr wrote:
> Surprisingly, Walker is averaging more defensive rebounds
> this year (6.6) than his career average (6.4). But he's
> averaging just 1.2 offensive boards, a big drop by more
> than half from his career stats. Hence the career low
> numbers (7.8). He'll probably have to pick up all of it
> on the offensive end in order to get back up to around 9
> boards per.
Don't think he will increase the offensive number significantly though, for 
a few reasons. Start with his point forward role, which takes up effort and 
energy and usually leaves him positioned too far away from the hoop for 
anything but stray long bounces. When he's in the lane himself, it's 
usually far too crowded to expect him to get the board more often than not; 
while Larry's statue has more of a vertical to get him over the bodies. 
Which reminds me of another problem - there's also the pay back's a bitch 
problem with the way fouls tend to get called (or not called) on him after 
years of ragging on the refs complicating things.

And Battie is picking up the slack on offensive boards, where he gets most 
of his, in an offense that's not likely to have often both him and 'Toine 
near the hoop at the same time.


> Meanwhile, based on the weakness of the ballot choices,
> one can almost make a rational case for Tony Battie
> making the All Star team.
Almost? Seriously, Tony himself probably wouldn't say he's a great center. 
But among weak competition and having clearly stepped up his game on a team 
that can be reasonably called a contender for division champ...

He deserved it as much as anyone I can think of in the east, particularly 
this year vs prior career and particularly given how key his role is to 
where the Cs are.


> With a little extra on-line voter turnout (that's our job)
> to push Bat Man into the top-five, and maybe an expanded
> role and minutes this month from Obie (TB averages just
> 28 mpg), Battie might have a shot at the All Star game,
> crazy as it sounds. That's especially true if Boston goes
> on a December run like they did last year, where they got
> to 10-games over .500.
I've wondered if his teammates are conscious of this too, and are 
intentionally feeding him more for fan friendly alley oops and just plain 
chances to score as part of a campaign on their part. I certainly consider 
some of them quite capable of doing that. As to ballot stuffing for him, I 
called for that a couple weeks ago.

Kim