what's different this year

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Sat,  2 Nov 2002 00:40:33 +0200
> From: "hironaka@nomade.fr"<hironaka@nomade.fr>
> Subject: Misc
<snip>
> A few (actual) thoughts on last night.
>
> - -Magic and Barkley notably said our captains, in
> particular, missed Kenny's 5 assists and 9 points. I
> found that unconvincing on the face of it. Toine and
> Pierce averaged like 60 points last year. If that was
> thanks to Kenny, then where are his 25 assists per game?
> I think Kenny was cornered into doing last year almost
> exactly what Delk has been asked to do, and is doing
> well, this year. <snip>

Come on Joe! Is this what you meant by not giving a thoughtful game
analysis?

I think you are well aware that one can effectively run an offense without
necessarily getting an assist on every basket. Kenny's value to this steam
far exceeded the modest assist numbers he compiled.

Not that he was EVER allowed to run the offense, more like
restrain/ameliorate the worst tendencies of the "system." You know, by
trying (at times) to involve the whole team, setting up folks where they can
do something with the ball (even Twon has bemoaned the loss of the Kenny's
ability on the pick-and-roll), bail out the team with last second
penetration/dish opportunities. None of these necessarily yield an assist.
Is there any evidence that Delk is doing ANY of this?

I think Barkley and Magic are right and that the offense is even worse this
year without Kenny. Where they are wrong is that offense was NEVER the
strongpoint of last year's team (despite having one of the most effective
scorers in the game in Pierce). I think there is a lot of truth in what
Kestutis had to say about our lack on D - the margin for error is now that
much smaller. We lost folks whose mental toughness was underappreciated and
have replaced them with softies/rookies. I think that was what was really
reflected in the historic embarrassment in DC.

-TomM

 PS Good point Joe about our missing out on a draft of apparently historic
proportions. It kills me to  think what this team would look like with
Richard Jefferson, Troy Murphy and either Tinsley or Parker - triple ouch!