Re: Tell me this guy can't play the 3

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

He does look much thinner, although it's hard to tell... from that angle,
even his head looks small.

But Josh is right. He looks like he has slimmed down and he certainly looks
capable of playing small forward. He looks more like the lithe player I
remember from Kentucky.

I hope it means he's been told he'll play small forward, because it solves
so many problems for this team. It keeps Battie on the floor and sends Ewill
to the bench. It gives them size advantages at three positions (SG-Pierce,
SF-Walker, PF-Baker or Battie). It encourages Antoine to post up more,
because he almost always would be guarded by a smaller player. It improves
the rebounding and interior defense. When Antoine does fire up a three, you
still have a couple of big guys around to contest rebounds.

But I doubt it means anything more than Antoine is working hard and losing
weight. That's good, but I really don't believe Obie will make that change.
Everything he has done has screamed small lineup. He seems to prefer
quickness to size. He's the only coach in the league who saw Tony Delk as a
starting shooting guard. He almost stubbornly refused to play Rogers, Walker
and Battie together. He just doesn't seem to value size mismatches like most
coaches in the NBA.

Hope I'm wrong, though.

Mark

P.S. You know it's killing me not to say something about that 6-for-24
line... oops... guess I did.