Re:George McCloud

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

McCloud's kind of a late bloomer who didn't crack double 
figures until his 6th NBA season (18.9 ppg for Dallas in 
1996) after being a lotto type pick I believe. He looked 
like a washout, but he ended up with a long NBA shelf 
life.

Memorably, he also beat up Ron Mercer in the Denver 
locker room a few years back. He lists his favorite movie 
as Pacino's "Scarface". NBA.COM also notes that he owns a 
kennel and raises dogs. He has a degree in criminology 
from FSU, and his nickname growing up was "G-man" 
(although I prefer "get off of" McCloud).

He's averaged as high as 3.7 assists in just 26.4 
minutes, and that was recently (2000-01).

I guess you could plug him in there as an Antoine backup. 
I doubt that will happen, personally. But the Celtics 
have only 7 guys in their rotation until Kedrick Brown 
returns.

The 8th guy is McCarty. 

Sundov faded badly in the last few exhibition games. I 
think at most, he'll get Walker's backup minutes (8-10 
tops). But those minutes might go to Baker or Battie, so 
that each guy can get 28-30 minutes apiece at center-
forward.
 
As for McCarty, for better or worse he's one of the keys 
in the early season backing up the 2 & 3. 

There's probably 28-30 minutes there behind EW and 
Pierce. Delk might get a few minutes backing up Pierce. 
And Eric Williams might see his minutes go up into the 
30s, to lesson the burden on Walter.

Once Kedrick comes back, I hope he gets Rodney Rogers 
type minutes ahead of Walter and that he gets back within 
the flow quickly, hitting some threes and playing 
aggressively on defense and the boards.

Until then, we are thin. Not that he's a savior or 
anything, but Kedrick's likely to miss 12 or 13 games 
minimum in November including some very tough matchups in 
the middle of the month.

So Walter has to come through for us in November. 
Shammond can't regress, given his opportunities here. Vin 
Baker has to be a productive 6th man almost immediately. 
That's your 8-man roster. Nothing to write home about, 
obviously.

I think people may tend to judge team quality by team 
depth (Hornets, Indy and Portland come to mind). 

What matters more is the chemistry, talent and cohesion 
of the starting five. I think the Celtics coach loves how 
his starters perform as a unit. They know how to beat 
teams, and the I hope he's right. 

Joe H.

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