Re: A man with a plan?

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

This was my favorite line:

"...and don't forget Eric 
Williams, who was one of the leading point-per-minute scorers at the SF 
position for Denver prior to suffering an ACL injury in November 1997..."

--- ---

The only thing I know for sure about Chris Wallace is he obviously thinks
we're all stupid. Eric Williams, five years ago, in Denver, before an ACL
injury... geez.

And the way he goes on and on about the potent offense of Shammond Williams,
J.R. Bremer and Bruno Sundov without mentioning that their collective ppg in
the NBA last season were 7.3, and they managed a grand total of 15 mpg. It's
really insulting. The spin on the Rogers/Baker stuff was even worse.

Wallace is one of those draft-list talent guys. He sticks guys on a list.
Never mind how they fit on a team or actual, honest-to-goodness NBA
scouting. He still operates like a guy who published a rinky-dink scouting
rag in his basement. And he's not even good at it (witness the 2001 draft,
which-sorry, Joe-he butchered). I hate the argument that he picked guys
"where they were supposed to be picked." According to who? I don't want a GM
who follows Chris Monter's draft list. I want a GM who identifies talent and
gets it. Do you think the guy who picked Ed O'Bannon a few years ago is
comforted by the fact that he picked him "where he was supposed to be
picked?" Was Kedrick picked "where he was supposed to be picked?" According
to every draft evaluation, he was a late first-rounder-until the news of the
Celtics' "deal" came out. But that's exactly the kind of bold move I don't
have a problem with-if you're right. But what did they see that made them
think Kedrick would be better than Richard Jefferson? They're both great
athletes. What did they see? And if you're that sure about Kedrick, why take
Joe Johnson? Because that's "where he was supposed to be picked?" No,
Wallace butchered that draft. In fact, the only one he hasn't butchered is
the Pierce pick, which was the all-time no-brainer. Pitino is gone, but the
lousy talent evaluation continues. That's on Wallace.

Anyway, Chris Wallace and Jim O'Brien should thank their lucky stars for
Dick Harter. They come out smelling like a rose because Dick Harter is the
best defensive coach in the NBA. That's the reason the Celts improved last
year. Defense. They weren't better offensively by any measure. They didn't
rebound significantly better. The one thing they did better is play defense.
That was Harter.

I don't know how the Celtics will do this year. Maybe Baker and Shammond
Williams will be great. But it's not as easy as saying "Baker is the
low-post presence the team needs." On paper, isn't he the low-post presence
Seattle needs? That's a team built around Payton, Brent Barry and Rashard
Lewis-all perimeter players. Even their power forward, Vlad Radmanovic, is a
perimeter player. And yet they were better whenever Baker was out of the
lineup. They couldn't wait to get him out of town-not just for cap room,
either. They wanted him gone because he was bad for team chemistry, not a
good teammate (needed too many touches), soft, and had fragile confidence.
In their minds, it was addition by subtraction. I'm afraid Baker in Boston
is going to be subtraction by addition. As for Shammond Williams, he was
considered a no-defense, dribble-crazy bad chemistry guy who lost his backup
point guard job to someone named Earl Watson. He was another guy they
couldn't wait to get rid of. Seattle fans are dancing in the streets because
those guys are gone-not because they got Kenny Anderson, Vitaly Potapenko,
Joseph Forte or even cap room after the season. They're happy just because
they're gone. This isn't Orlando swallowing a bitter pill by trading Bo
Outlaw for cap room. That was the price they paid, and they admitted it was
painful. No, this is a team that is deliriously happy just to be rid of
these guys. That's a major red flag for me, even if it isn't for anyone
else.

Thankfully for the Celtics, they have two captains who are good enough to
probably carry them to the playoffs on their own. I'll probably settle in
somewhere around 44-45 wins when I make my predictions, but I can't help but
feel like this franchise missed a golden opportunity. When the 2000-2001
season ended, they had Pierce, Walker, light at the end of the tunnel in
terms of cap room and three first-round draft picks, including two lottery
picks. Now they have Pierce, Walker, the most untradeable player and
contract in the league, no cap room for the foreseeable future and only one
of those picks is still around and he's at best a question mark. It just
seems that they were at a point when they could have shaped the future of
the franchise, and the opportunity was wasted. So they head into the next
four years with an almost unchangeable roster, forced every year to bottom
feed just to get 12 guys.

Well, this got much longer and more venomous than I had planned. Wallace
just irritates me. I don't like being treated like an idiot, and he treats
us all like that's just what we are.

Mark