An opposing scout on the Celtics

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

A pretty good analysis, I think:

"They are going to be weaker. Kenny Anderson gave his best performance in
four or five years, and he's gone. His backup, Erick Strickland, is gone,
sixth man Rodney Rogers is gone, and I have doubts about the replacements.
... Anderson gave them veteran leadership, he was able to blend in and be
unselfish, he could run the offense under pressure, and he rebounded well
for a point guard. Their only true point guard is J.R. Bremer, an undrafted
rookie from St. Bonaventure, and you can't ask him to run a playoff team.
Tony Delk and Shammond Williams are going to struggle at that position, even
if all they're asked to do is bring the ball up. Strickland would have been
better than any of the guys they have now. ... This season I'm telling our
guys to deny the ball to Antoine Walker, make him work hard bringing it up
and push him out whenever you can. If he isn't handling the ball then who
is?... I even think they're going to miss Vitaly Potapenko, a big, strong
guy who could bang and hold the fort. Vin Baker is going to have to play
mainly at center, and he's not strong enough. Baker's problem is that he
thinks he's working hard when he really isn't. He's going to have to adjust
his game offensively; Paul Pierce is more effective in the post than Baker
is. ... They're looking at a weaker bench, which means their defensive
intensity is likely to suffer. They'll struggle on back-to-backs, and Walker
and Pierce aren't going to want to practice because they'll be working so
hard during the games. They need something from Kedrick Brown, but he was in
junior college two seasons ago, and he's a year away. ... Pierce is one of
the top five scorers in the league, but he's an arm-waver on defense. Let's
give it to assistant coach Dick Harter, who turned a bunch of average or
poor defenders into a good defensive team last year. He has a much tougher
job this time."