RE: Stay patient with Kedrick

[Kestas <kkv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:01 PM 1/17/2003 -0500, you wrote:

> * Well coming out of college where Billups had never played the position
> before, why was it wrong to mention that he would need more time to adjust
> to the position?  If you knew he was going to turn into a decent guard who
> can defend and score, seems you should have been lobbying to keep him.
No, because he was drafted to be a point guard (at #3, no less) and it was 
just apparent that he wasn't going to become one. And he hasn't.
He's a decent third, combo, guard on a team that has solid starters at 1 
and 2. In other words, a luxury the Celtics, already overloaded with combo 
guards and 2-guards at the time, but missing a PG, couldn't afford.

> Anyway, with respect to Kedrick and Tmac, I suspect that Tmac averaged those
> points in  quite a few more minutes than Kedrick has received and was under
> less pressure to give the ball up to the "scorers" as well.
Like Mark has pointed out numerous times,  he hasnt' received more minutes 
for a reason. He's useful in certain limited situations, defending athletic 
scorers who are too much physically for Ewill or Delk. I wished for the 
longest time that Obie would give at least a few minutes a game to him to 
see what we have. Now it's happened. Has Kedrick made a compelling case to 
give him more? They're basically playing 4 on 5 on offense with him, which, 
for a kid of his athletic talent, is inexcusable.

> * Judging by these Augmon stats, I guess you would have predicted he would
> have been much better than Tmac AND Kobe :-)
It doesn't work that way, and you know it. Lots of guys decline or flame 
out in a few years, even if they were putting up good stats in the 
beginning. We have Prime Exhibit A on our roster. My point was that no star 
has had years 1-2 like Kedrick's and then exploded onto the scene. I guess 
Jermaine O'Neal comes closest, but it was an open secret among GMs that he 
could really play in practice for the Blazers, even though his stats were 
very modest (but still a lot better than Kedrick's). And that was because 
he couldn't get PT on a team loaded to the gills with frontcourt talent. 
Remember when Pitino had offered 3 #1 picks for him and we thought he was 
out of his mind? Well, I doubt anyone'd offer a single #1 for Kedrick now, 
unless it's really low.

Again, I REALLY hope you're right, Cecil, and Kedrick just needs more time. 
But you've always preached patience, and while that's nice, it eventually 
becomes a waste of time if the player hasn't "got it". If Kerick become at 
least a starter-quality player, it will be a first for players on his 
current statistical curve and players from JuCo. There have been very few 
(any?) successful JuCo players in the NBA  for a reason. The reason might 
be selection bias. That is, if the kid isn't smart enough to meet the 
laughable Prop 48 standards and play for a Div I school, he probably will 
have trouble in the fast-paced NBA environment. Contrary to what a lot of 
people think, NBA stars tend to be pretty smart - maybe not highly educated 
in the usual academic sense, but intelligent nonetheless, even if they 
don't sound like Bill Bradley. You have to be, to pick up plays, coaches' 
instructions, players' tendencies, and in general to figure out what works 
and what doesn't, and quickly compute all the possibilities in a given 
play.  Judging from his comments, Kedrick doesn't strike me as dumb, but 
his basketball intelligence may be lacking. If you can't figure out what to 
do after 2 years of practices, summer leagues, and preseason camps, maybe 
you can't figure it out.  It's certainly not the lack of coaching, given 
how much effort  the Celtics staff expends working with him 
extracurricularly, and not the lack of physical tools.
Kestas