Re: All You O'Brien Groupies Can Rejoice

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

I really don't have much to add to a spot-on perfect post by Kestas. I agree
with everything he says here. Every last word.

I knew the Obie/assistant extensions were coming as soon as the C's took
control of the series. I guess playing miserable, ugly basketball for six
months and regressing by five wins from the previous season are outweighed
by taking advantage of a favorable matchup and an inept opposing coach in
the first round of the playoffs. If the Celts bow out quickly against the
Nets, which I think most of us expect, and they're puttering along next
season on a 43-win pace with Antoine shooting 38 percent and taking eight
threes a game while neglecting the glass, still with no point guard on the
roster, and without a contribution from two more first-round draft picks...
I guess we'll still have memories of the first-round win against the Pacers.
Apparently that's good enough for the Boston Celtics these days.

The Celtics have to stop measuring themselves against the rest of the
Eastern Conference. It's like building a team with a goal to finish in fifth
place. They're a playoff team. Fine. They can advance to the second round of
the playoffs. Great. Are they championship contenders? Were they last year,
with a MUCH better team? Not even close. Forget about catching the Nets or
Sixers. At some point, you have to start thinking about catching the Lakers,
Spurs, Kings and Mavs. That's the goal, right? NBA championships? Does
anyone really believe the Celtics are remotely close? If you concede that
they aren't, then why just continue to bring back the same cast of
characters and add late-round draft picks? So you can win 43 games, make the
playoffs in a terrible conference and rake in some extra dough from playoff
ticket sales for a round or two? Is that what we want? Fast forward to next
season. Obie is the coach. What changes? Pierce and Walker won't change.
They might tinker around the edges, but will it be enough to make a
difference? No way. Antoine still will control the ball. Pierce will
continue to be wasted by being asked to do too much in terms of
ball-handling. No point guard will make a difference. Vin Baker? Please.
Kedrick? Sure. Nope, the crunch time lineup will be Antoine, Pierce, Battie,
EWill and Delk. Those are "Obie's guys." 

And believe me, staying the same doesn't come with a guarantee of making the
playoffs. The Bulls will be a force to be reckoned with sometime very soon,
and other teams will continue to improve. The Celts were the third seed a
year ago. The sixth seed this year. Next year? Who knows? 

Hopefully, the Obie extension doesn't necessarily mean there will be a
Wallace extension. The quote from Obie about his conversation with the
owners and his doubts about Vin Baker leads me to believe that the owners
are clearly aware of the disagreement between Wallace and Obie. They seem to
be siding with Obie. If you're going to choose one or the other, that's the
right one. With any luck, they get a realist in the GM's job who understands
the importance of knowing how good your own team is. And if they realize
that, they should realize that changes are necessary. Maybe they won't come
this offseason (which is too bad, because of the timing of Antoine's
expiring contract makes this the perfect time; instead, it will be Year 8 of
the Celts held hostage by Antoine), but hopefully they will come.

One important item of business this offseason is going to be EWill's status.
His contract expires after next season, and it's a significant chunk of
change. Ideally, they will sit on it until the trade deadline, when teams
going nowhere start to dump legitimate players for ending contracts. That's
when he'll have the greatest value. Just keep Wallace far away from any of
those deals. His handling of the same situation with Kenny is what left us
with Vin Baker.

Anyway, this got much too long and I really started to ramble at the end.
Just remember next season, when the team is playing just like it did this
season, that it might have been different with a first-round loss.
Short-term pain for long-term gain.

Mark




--- --- ---

Kestas wrote:

In a sense, everything is pretty speculative about a sports franchise. That
said, being shut out by the so-called championship-contender teams this
season
is pretty hard evidence to me that we won't win anything as presently
constituted. And, if the BDT remains in place, it is a virtual certainty -
based on its performance so far - that the team's personnel will not
improve. 
As for liking their style of play, let me ask you this, CeltsSteve: do you
like
the Celtics' style of play? Do you prefer it to the Sacramento's, Dallas's,
even NJ's style of play? If you weren't a Celtics fan, would you rather
watch
the Celtics, or the aforementioned teams?


... ... ... 

Continuity is good when what you have is worth continuing. The foundation
currently in place is faulty, IMO, because the team is effectively led and
coached (through the person of Obie) by a talented clown who plays
playground
ball where the goal is not to win, but to show the other guy up and to
display
your skillz   in the flashiest way possible (which basically means
attempting
to score in a most difficult fashion). Ironically, he only starts playing
solid
basketball when they really have to win, but that constitutes less than 10%
of
his games. More importantly, his teammates are iced out all season long by
the
ObieWalker ball, reduced to spot-up 3-point shooters while Walker and Pierce
take turns throwing up garbage, THEN blamed for being incompetent. At least
Pierce has the talent to MAKE his garbage, throws up less of it, is much
more
solid fundamentally, and significantly increased his non-scoring
contributions
this season. Twan, conversely, is going in the other direction. But we've
been
over it a hundred times. 

The bottom line is this: it's a business and you have to please your
customers.
If I were the owner of the Celtics, I'd be worried about the ugly style of
play
and the fact that a lot of fans hate Walker for the reasons I just
described.
They're always ready to boo him because, after seven years of watching his
garbage, they are sick of it. He's on his best behavior now and they're
winning, albeit against the rudderless Pacers. But you just wait until they
run
into the Nets, he gets intimidated by KMart, and starts throwing up garbage
again. Whoever they run into next, I'm pretty sure no other NBA coach is
stupid
enough to put a skinny, aging shooting guard on Toine, so it'll be hard-hat
time for fans in the expensive seats and more boos for Walker. 

Kestas

PS While I'm in my bitching mode, let me get this off my chest: I've stopped
watching the FSNE broadcasts if another broadcast of the Celtics game is
available. I'm so sick of Tommy's obsession with the refs. He adds nothing
to
the broadcast anymore, it's always the same old three things: how the entire
officiating corps is conspiring against the Celtics, his RUN-RUN-RUN!!!
paroxysms, and the Tommy point business. Some people gain wisdom and
perspective as they age; others LOSE all perspective and become cantankerous
cranks fixated on some imagined ill or injustice. Sadly, Tommy is the
latter.
It's too bad really, because I've always liked, and still like, Mike Gorman,
whom I find especially soothing if the Celtics are doing badly in a game.
But
Tommy needs to go. This probably sounds heretical to the Johnny Most fans
and
others with strong-prescription green glasses, but I can't take it anymore.
I
much prefer the occassionally soporific, but always candid and insightful
Cooz.