Re: Making Tommy Heinsohn happy

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

I think I alarmed coworkers today with an audible groan when I read the
Herald piece. I love the fact that Obie wants to run more. That's great. But
then he talks about running and flipping it back to the trailer for a three
and I get a chill down my spine. You can get a three-pointer virtually
anytime you want. If you run a break and end up with a three-pointer, you've
failed. I don't care how open the shot is, that's a failure. A fast break
should yield a layup or simple little foul-line jumper, not a 23-foot heave.

It's probably a moot point anyway. This team hasn't run a decent fast break
since the early days of Chris Ford's tenure. Last season was especially
atrocious, and I see no reason to expect it to get better without Kenny. It
got to the point last season that the predictable turnover at the end of the
break was a relief as long as it didn't come attached to an offensive foul.

Anyway, you can't run if you don't rebound, and this isn't a good rebounding
team. Couple that with the fact that Pierce, Walker and Baker never seem to
be in any hurry, and all this talk about running strikes me as just
that-talk. We'll spend a few days debating it, Tommy will have a bounce in
his step for a while, but by December, it will be obvious that not much has
changed. This team still will walk it up the court, isolate Pierce or
Walker, and let defensive reactions dictate the offense. Throw in a little
Baker, and that's it.

Meanwhile, we have the other Herald story on Kedrick. The comparison to
Pierce seems so off-base to me. Pierce isn't especially athletic. His
biggest strengths are his basic basketball skills-especially shooting-and
great footwork. He came to the Celtics after three years in a big-time
program. Kedrick is much more Moiso-like-but don't worry, I'm not writing
him off yet. Both Kedrick and Moiso are ultra-athletic, yet lack a natural
feel for the game and are deferential to a fault. Everyone talks about
McGrady and Kobe, but those guys were incredibly brash and confident, if
unpolished, when they entered the league. They pushed not just for playing
time, but to be The Man. They believed they were going to be great players,
but were being held back. When they played, they were aggressive. They made
mistakes, but they were mistakes of aggression. They were like Pierce in
that sense, just not the polished product Pierce was after three years at
Kansas. Kedrick is nothing like that.

Looking forward to lots of game reports tomorrow (and thanks to everyone who
posted their thoughts yesterday).

Mark