Antoine

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

This series is showing why so many of us have been begging the Celtics to
find a power forward and shift Antoine to small forward. He dominates
smaller defenders around the low post, and when they double team, he's
capable of finding the open man. The argument always has been he can't
defend small forwards-but they can't defend him either. And it's not as if
he's a great power forward defender.

Unfortunately, the BDT doesn't see it this way and, truth be told, neither
does Antoine. Like Kestas says, he wants to cherry-pick the best of all
worlds-handle the ball like the point guard, shoot 3-pointers like a
shooting guard or small forward, and defend the slower guys on the floor
like the power forward. Unfortunately, he doesn't do the dirty work anymore.


I really can't believe how bad Isiah is. Can't he see how defending Antoine
with Reggie Miller and Ron Mercer is a disaster? Kim made the point
yesterday that it's better than the other options-Pierce or EWill. I
completely disagree. If you're coaching against the Celtics, who would you
rather see with the ball in the low post-Walker, Pierce or EWill? My
preference would be EWill. He's not especially efficient down there, he's
not a good free throw shooter and, most importantly, he's not a real threat
as a passer. Basically, if the ball is in his hands, it's not in Pierce's or
Walker's. The one thing I don't want to do if I'm Indy, is encourage Antoine
to post up and attack the basket, where I'm forced to double team him
because he's abusing a smaller defender. Stick O'Neal on Antoine and Toine
will struggle and start to hoist up threes. That's what you want if you're
Indy, isn't it?

Oh well. Isiah is Indy's problem. How bad must he be to get out-coached by
Obie? This is like a free throw shooting contest between Rodman and Shaq. As
I've said before, I think winning this battle may mean we lose the war. A
first-round exit probably encourages the new owners to clean house. A trip
to the second round, however, probably precludes it. If they fire the BDT
then, you can expect all the obligatory "how could they do this after a trip
to the ECF and the EC semis?" stories and columns from the Boston media. So
they'll probably just stand pat. What a disaster. That means continued bad
coaching, bad drafting and bad decisions across the board. Two blown picks
that will rot on the bench, a too-rich contract extension for Antoine and
continued mediocrity. Yippee.

Mark

P.S. Gutty win by the T-Wolves last night. They could have been emotionally
crushed when the game went to OT, then they lost Garnett just seconds into
the OT, but they still clawed their way past the Lakers. Having an explosive
scoring point guard seems to be a key against the Lakers. Troy Hudson has
abused them, much like Mike Bibby last year. Interesting.