Wyc, playoffs, Blake, etc.

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

Catching up on a few recent topics of discussion... 

1.	Wyc's comments during Wednesday's games. I'm hoping there's more to
it. It's not so much his comment about Pagliuca being involved in personnel
matters that makes me wonder, but his complete exclusion of Wallace from the
conversation. As careful as those types (yes, I'm generalizing, but I know a
few of those "types") are about what they say, it doesn't seem likely that
he'd inadvertently fail to mention the team's GM. This feels deliberate.
Definitely a good sign. I don't believe they'd rely on Pagliuca to make any
personnel decisions, but, as Kestas said, even if they did, he couldn't be
worse. He might not be better, but he couldn't be worse.

2.	The PR firm was in overdrive today with Shira's full-body massage of
Jim O'Brien. Basically what it said, if you strip away the BS, is that Obie
is good at keeping Antoine happy. And that's what Obie's tenure boils down
to. He's Antoine's lap dog, and he's not about to bite the hand that feeds
him. Can we trade Antoine and Obie as a package deal? Please? 

3.	I actually like the first-round matchup with Indy. This is the only
team in the league that won't have a coaching advantage against the Celts.
Artest in a pressure situation could explode, and that would disrupt the
Pacers. They still rely on Reggie Miller too much. I'll be surprised if the
Celts advance, but not shocked. Of course, at this point I'm rooting for a
quick exit just to build on the growing discontent with the BDT. Columnists
and broadcast analysts (including Ainge and Walton) see the same things we
see. If it takes a first-round flameout to make it obvious to the new
owners, then so be it. Small price to pay in the long run.

4.	I never considered Blake an NBA prospect mainly because of his
size-he always struck me as a scrawny little kid. But I noticed during the
NCAA tourney that he had bulked up some. I still think he's a marginal
prospect, but Gene has seen much more of him than I have. I will say that
sometimes these scouts miss the forest for the trees. What is important in a
point guard? Leadership, running the offense, passing, unselfishness. A
scout should look for those things first. Instead, they look for the things
that really aren't that important-athleticism and shooting. They make the
same mistakes in the NFL with quarterbacks. They start looking at 40-yard
dash times, how hard a guy can throw the ball, etc., instead of leadership,
intelligence and the ability to throw the ball where they want to throw it.
It's the reason a guy like Kyle Boller of Cal, who completed just 50 percent
of his passes but can throw the ball through the uprights from the 50-yard
line on his knees and run like a linebacker, may be drafted ahead of a guy
like Byron Leftwich, who completes 65 percent of his passes, doesn't throw
interceptions and is the kind of leader who would play on a broken leg when
his teammates had to carry him down the field-but he can't run the 40 quite
as fast. Ideally, in either sport, you'd have the complete package, but
those guys are rare. You have to find the guys who do what you need them to
do. Of course, Bobby Hurley was a lottery bust in the same draft where Nick
Van Exel was a second-round steal. There are certain physical minimums a
player must possess, and mental toughness is part of it as well. This is a
long-winded way of saying I don't know if Steve Blake will be a good NBA
player, but it isn't unusual for guys like him to be overlooked for some
very bad reasons.

5.	Did Leo Papile really say, while guest-hosting on Chris Wallace's
radio show, that Kedrick never would start in Boston, would sign somewhere
else for big money because the Celts won't be able to afford him, and
explode for another team? Did he really say that? Is anyone else stunned by
the fact that a basement recruiting rag writer and an AAU wannabe coach have
been making the personnel decisions for the Boston Celtics? Sometimes the
absurdity of it just hits me in the face.

That's it. Sorry so long.

Mark