Re: Making Tommy Heinsohn happy

["Lance Jacobson" <lancejacob@xxxxxxxxx>]

Good assessment of Kedrick vs. The Kids Who Made It.  It's one thing to
learn by getting back on the horse, it's another thing to figure out how to
ride by watching a horse race.  Kedrick just doesn't seem to have the fire
to want the ball and make the plays.  Does he have anything to learn from
film of his game, or is it all conjecture?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 9:53 AM
Subject: Re: Making Tommy Heinsohn happy


> 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