Re: Blame Jordan!

[Kim Malo <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:42 AM 9/12/02 -0500, Alexander Wang wrote:
>"Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"

*snort* Of course that was the way I felt once O'B and the revived Cs lured me back after ML and Pitino had pushed me to the edge...

>Well, Kim's arithmetic was a bit off... 30 out of 707 is more like 4%.  Nonetheless
>the point is right - someone who shoots less than one three-pointer a game isn't
>exactly "staying behind the line and firing away" as Lance asserted.

Yeah, thanks for the correction. I was doing it in my head and dropped a decimal. But as you say, the general principal applies. And the increased pga over the prior year, small though the numbers were, could as likely been in response to the criticism I'd mentioned as any kind of competition/influence derived from lance's favorite limb of satan.

>That lockout season with Walker, Pierce, and Mercer really did show bad
>chemistry though and Paul was partially to blame. You could see him sulking
>after going long stretches without the ball, and then he'd get the balls in his
>hands after a rebound and take it sideline to sideline. It looked pretty selfish.
>But Mercer was plenty selfish too, playing for his extension.

Walker wasn't exempt either. All three fed off each other and egged on the rest of the team, playing with the clear thought that you'd better not give the ball up 'cause you'd never see it again and the team wasn't going anywhere so you might as well try to look good yourself instead. Always wondered how much of the selfishness was Pitino's direct fault (vs general fostering the atmosphere) vs his just not doing anything to fix the problems causing it.

> I think it was
>obvious even then though that Pierce was a far superior player than Mercer,

More complete player certainly. Mercer is a classic niche player, born to be a 6th man off the bench to revive the offense when no one else is hitting anything. Mind you, there have been times I would have LOVED to have that reliable midrange jumper still around when nothing else was going in or I thought they were relying too much on the 3.

>But... he never goes to the foul line, because when he drives,
>he twists away from contact.

Hmmm, never noticed that one. I noticed the no fouls but put it down to the steady diet of open jumpers, while he only seemed to drive when there was a wide open path too. I'll have to watch for it.

> He can't hit a 3. He doesn't make his
>teammates better because he doesn't create his own offense.

Well I agree he doesn't make his teammates better, but not necessarily the reason you give. More that he can't create offense for anyone else and was pretty weak defensively while he was here (haven't seen enough of him since to tell if that's improved).

Kim