Re: No love from DA

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

Remember, Orlando finished only two games behind the C's last season. They
now have Gooden and Giricek for a full season, and added Juwan Howard in the
offseason. They should be significantly better. Can we honestly say the same
thing about the Celtics? If you look at it objectively, the only true
contributor we've added is Banks and, maybe, Jumaine Jones. Banks, as much
as I like him, remains a rookie point guard. He'll make some great plays,
but those guys tend to have plenty of ups and downs. It's a tough position
to jump into right away. Look at some of the high-profile guys from recent
drafts - Jay Williams, Baron Davis, Jamaal Crawford, Andre Miller - and most
of them struggled early before making a significant jump the following
season. And all of these guys were more highly regarded coming into the
league than Banks (not that that necessarily means anything). As for Jones,
let's see how it shakes out. Obie likes to play about eight guys. Pierce,
Walker, Banks, Delk, James, Williams, Battie and Blount will play. You still
have Walter and Kedrick. Maybe you count Baker. Let's just see how the
minutes shake out.

My point is this - I like what Ainge did in the draft. But as for improving
THIS season, I'm not sure. We all hope the style of play changes and results
in improvement, but how often does that really happen? I think it's far more
likely that the team regresses a little due to defensive slippage. They
slipped a little last season.

Meanwhile, Orlando made a significant addition in Howard. Armstrong-Lue is a
wash at this point in Armstrong's career. 

We'll see, but I'm just not convinced this team will improve THIS season.
The future looks better, but it's going to take some time.

Mark 


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Mark P. wrote:

>David Aldridge: Orlando has had a strong offseason. I like what they 
>did to shore themselves up at the point. I still am not sure that 
>Howard isn't a duplication of Gooden, but the Magic certainly should 
>be right there with Detroit and Indy as the Nets' challengers

While I don't dislike the moves Orlando made, I don't understand how 
DA can say they are better than the C's or even the Sixers.  If you 
think our bench was thin look at theirs -- and they lost their 
sparkplug Darrell Armstrong.  I don't think its a stretch to say 
Banks may be a better starting PG -- RIGHT NOW -- than Tyronne Lue 
either.