Re: '01 draft revisited and O'Brien's culpability

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

 >"Then if you truly believe that not drafting Parker at #21 falls on 
O'Brien, 
>what you are really saying/implying is that the C's will NEVER draft a legit 

>PG or sign a quality FA point guard as long as O'Brien is the head coach 
>>because that's not  how O'Brien wants the team set up.  -CeltsSteve


Hardly.  But very nice of you to try to put words in my mouth.
Everyone and their brother knows point guard is right up there at the top of 
the Celtics wish list along with a big man- rebounder-defender type.
But that's been the same for the last three years and we end up coming away 
with 4 swingmen and an athletic but wimpy power forward with no heart.

If you will reread my post, I used the word "WANTED"---that would be past 
tense.
I think even O'Brien has come to realize his experiment of Walker as the 
point forward was a failure. 
Even If O'Brien were stubborn enough to want to stick with his philosophy, I 
think it's obvious Ainge has a different view and a little more clout than 
Wallace.


More from just after the '01 draft:

       **And, by the way, Boston is serious about playing Walker at point 
guard
       next season. "That's not a gimmick," coach Jim O'Brien said. "From the
       first time I saw Antoine as a rising junior at Mt. Carmel (Il.) High,
       he was playing in the summer camp, and he was playing point. And I was
       just astounded by his ballhandling capabilities. The difficulty is if
       we're going to go with him at the point, then we want to go with the
       big team ... but somebody's got to play the other team's point
       guards."**

There's the #1 reason we didn't draft a point guard right there.
That's O'Brien's vision and Wallace went along with it full throttle.
A shooter on the floor with point forward Walker who can guard the point 
guard.  
That's what gets you players like Forte, Palacio, and Shammond Williams 
instead of real point guards.


>"The point I'm trying to make is that looking back at the 2001 draft and 
>blaming O'Brien for drafting Forte at #21 instead of  a PG - be it Parker or 
even 
>Tinsley - conveniently ignores the fact that Kenny had two years left on his 

>contract and was still owed some $15M at that time and thus a rookie PG 
would 
>have seen little immediate PT because of that very fact. 

Are you serious?
Anderson was coming off his worst season as a pro.  He played in only 33 
games and started just 28 of them.  In the games he did play he shot just 38% and 
averaged less than 8 points and 5 assists a game.  So what if he was still on 
the roster?  What good is it if he can't play for whatever reason?
Worse still, he was backed up at the beginning of that season by a washed up 
Randy Brown.  That's why we had to go out and find a Milt Palacio halfway 
through the season.
Of course we needed a point guard, unless your going with O'Briens 
point-forward vision. That point is not even arguable.
Both Anderson and Brown were in the twilight of their careers and neither of 
them could log big minutes.  Palacio was erratic at the least.



>Additionally, from the POV of a GM, history tells us PGs are readily 
>available every draft. This year is no different. To blame O'Brien for not 
drafting 
>Parker two years ago is definitely a reach.    

Oh yeah, good point guards are practically growing on tree's.  That's why the 
league is full of All-Star point guards and why players like Andre Miller and 
Mike Bibby are drooled over by just about every team in the league when they 
have one good season. 

My point was that O'Brien was just as responsible for the Forte pick as 
anyone else, not more so, but just as.
All the media pundits in Boston want to blame Red.  But O'Brien was a fan of 
Forte's before the draft, on the record,  and was more than thrilled with the 
pick after the draft, on the record, even though they had Parker listed as the 
best point guard on the board and he was still available, on the record, the 
trio of Wallace, O'Brien and Papile thought that Forte was the better player 
and the better fit for the Celtics, on the record, even going so far as to call 
it a "match made in heaven".
So where's the reach?


TAM