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Re: Talking hoops with the boss

At 12:00 PM 8/26/2003 -0400, Josh Ozersky wrote: 
Here's a great ainge interview -- from the eagle tribune,
of all places.  the Globe should be embarassed.

josh

http://www.eagletribune.com/news/stories/20030823/SP_001.htm

Mmmm, it was a very good interview, with some good questions asked and some interesting answers from Ainge mixed in with the standard fencing:

From Ainge on how to get back to the top
Taking two steps backward (to go forward), there are no guarantees. The Celtics did that and it turned out to be Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer (with the third and sixth picks overall in 1997).

It's happened to a lot of franchises. There are no guarantees by taking a step backwards that you do take a step forward. You're looking at teams who've been horrible for two years to get cap space and they couldn't get the star player like (free agents) Elton Brand and Jermaine O'Neal.

I probably wouldn't (do a huge rebuilding project). The Bulls got rid of veteran players and they've been out of the playoffs six straight years. Do we want a 10-year rebuilding program like the Bulls?

The Heat have taken a couple steps backward. I don't really feel like anybody including Paul Pierce, Jim O'Brien, Antoine Walker, the fans and myself want to do that.

If you could tell me take two steps backwards and be certain we'd get Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neal, any franchise would do that.

Which isn't that far away from standard fencing but is truly part of the answer to people who keep insisting on tanking to get in the lottery. It's a method, but not as guaranteed as they make out, and has other problems with it involving creating a culture of losing that's tough to break unless you do get someone in return exceptional in a lot of ways, including leadership (not usually a big part of under age lottery picks, with only a very few exceptions).

From Ainge on Walker and the need to change his game:
When there are better people around him, he can make (rookie point guard) Marcus Banks a better player. Antoine can spread the court. There are things he can do in an uptempo game with his ability to drive left and right. Hopefully, his job will become easier.

A point that doesn't get made here very much, but which is very true IMO. Starting with things like having someone else on the court who can see the floor to help take pressure off a trapped Marcus in the offense until he gets more used to the pro game. Paul can create his own offense (see below) but he's not good at seeing the court to help others

Antoine is a pretty clever guy. He gets by on smarts and IQ. I think he'll be better and will get easier shots when there are people around who can create him shots. When he's not required to create his own offense. He's not as good at that as Paul.

I don't think Antoine agrees with this, but it's very true, perceptive on Ainge's part to see the importance of and a fairly good sized part of why the many bad threes vs better shots. Getting Antoine to see this should be interesting, but I actually do believe that he's got enough hoop sense and enough will to win that he might come to see it, depsite his ego

And some more stuff, but this is getting long enough. A really enjoyable read, Josh - thanks for finding and posting it.

Kim