So far so ...

[Peter Delevett <pdelevett@xxxxxxxxx>]

Been meaning to say that I'm pleasantly surprised by
the team's record thusfar. With all the personnel
changes, I'd expected them to struggle in the first 20
games. But Walker/Pierce are (dare I say) becoming a
Jordan/Pippen tandem, talented enough to carry the
team regardless of their teammates. 

I feared we'd miss Kenny and Strickland, but Delk and
S Williams have really stepped up. Last time I
compared the stats, Shammond was delivering almost
identical numbers to Kenny's last year, albeit with a
noticeable dropoff in assists. And Delk is making the
Johnson trade look smart, Wednesday's game
notwithstanding. 

Funny how Seattle is winning with zero contribution
from Kenny AND with no Vin Baker. They've really
missed his production, huh? Addition by subtraction.
Joe H. was right the other day: on a per-minute basis,
Vin is roughly as productive as he was last year, but
his foul rate has doubled. I'm not gonna beat the dead
horse about Baker's lack of productivity for Boston,
except to say I'm damn glad we don't miss Rogers as
much as I thought we would, thanks mostly to Battie's
career year. (Wonder how much of that is inspired by
the fact that Tony no longer has to worry about
sharing time with Rogers and Vitaly.) Rogers,
meanwhile, hasn't made a huge impact in Jersey.

It would be nice, though, if as the season progresses
we start getting contributions from Baker, Kedrick and
Sundov. It's a long season and I don't know if Obie
can ride the same 8 guys so long and hard without
somebody breaking down and/or opponents figuring out
how to stop us.

Next milestone I'm looking forward to is the All-Star
break. We'll see what the state of affairs is then.
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