Re: Kedrick is tying Danny's hands

[Ryan W <ubiquitous_am_i@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- "Berry, Mark  S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> This is going to be all over the place...
> 
> One of the big chips Ainge had at his disposal this
> season was Eric
> Williams' expiring contract. The thought was, with
> an emerging Kedrick and
> the addition of Jumaine Jones, EWill would be
> expendable. Now, I'm not so
> sure.

Good point, Mark.  Although, I would look at this
development as a good thing.  Trades are bad.  Let's
keep with what we have and let the chips fall where
they may.  If, at the AllStar Break, we've made E
redundant, then think about moving him.  But right
now, he has too much value to this team, as a leader,
scorer, and all-around perfect bench player to move
him in any deal not returning a starting level point
or 3 man.  And I don't see those deals happening,
yet...things do have a way of changing around the
deadline...
> 
> Kedrick, as most of us must now admit, just isn't
> getting the job done. We
> can hope that will change, but right now he's
> killing them when he's on the
> floor. They're playing four-on-five on the offensive
> end, he isn't doing the
> little things (passing, rebounding) and has been
> average at best
> defensively. When Jones and EWill are healthy, is
> there any doubt that
> Kedrick will be the odd man out of the rotation?
> Unless something drastic
> happens to Kedrick between now and then, I don't see
> any other outcome. In
> fact, I wouldn't be shocked to see Welsch start
> eating into Kedrick's time.
> Welsch is the anti-Kedrick. He's clearly not an
> athlete, but he is a
> basketball player. In fact, I'm hoping he catches on
> to the point guard spot
> and becomes part of the solution there. But if not,
> I won't be shocked to
> see him eating into Kedrick's minutes.

Patience, my friends, patience.  It's been three
sub-par games to start the season.  Jones and a
healthy E will eat into Key's minutes, but Welsch and
Walter will not....Welsch is a point/2 guard only (no
3 man minutes there) and Walter, well, he's just
Walter (good in spurts....make that good in some
spurts).  Kedrick still provides something no one else
does, sprinting and tight man-on-man defense (you
aren't going to see Jones or Welsch guarding the
Wesley's and Davis's of the world).  Plus, as Ainge
I'm sure will point out, we have an interest in
getting Key to perform...and, if the team keeps
winning (a healthy E coming off the bench is central
to that), Key's leash will be longer.  The end story,
though, is that he has to start producing
better....which I think will.  But games of 4 points,
3 rebounds, must start becoming 10 points, 6 rebounds
very fast....
> 
> But without Kedrick producing, can Ainge afford to
> dangle EWill's contract
> at the trade deadline? The thought was he could use
> EWill alone or packaged
> with Mills to bring back an impact player from a
> team trying to create cap
> room. Kedrick's struggles make that a little more
> difficult, although not
> impossible. But Ewill is valuable at the ends of
> games because he actually
> remains pretty calm in pressure situations and is
> one of the few Celtics who
> can almost will himself to the free throw line.
> Pierce can't do it alone
> down the stretch.

Yes, E is very valuable.  Why trade him?  He has the
look of a scorer for the first time since he's been
back in Boston.  Let's see what he can do in this new
role before we come up with schemes to cash in on his
expiring contract.  I wouldn't be the least
disappointed if the C's ended up resigning him.  What
are everyone else's thoughts on resigning E?
> 
> The position where help is needed the most is point
> guard, but I'm not sure
> what's out there. I'd actually like a Brevin Knight
> deal, but not at the
> cost of Battie. Say what you want about Knight, but
> he can run a team. It
> won't take much to see a real upgrade over James (a
> perfect backup - a poor
> man's Darrell Armstrong) and Banks (not giving up on
> him at all). But again,
> subtracting Battie just seems like a mistake unless
> a real impact player is
> coming back. You dump Battie and you're relying even
> more on Baker and
> Blount. Talk about a shaky foundation.

Yeah, Battie gets no respect.  He's good coming off
the bench and with Blount's emergence, Vinnie
resurrection and Raef's simple ability to make jumpers
and block shots, we finally have a strength at the
center spot.  Do you wanna trade that?  People say a
Battie trade would allow us to find minutes for
Kendrick.  How good would that turn out?  We have one
22 year old struggling with his confidence.  We have
another 22 year old getting benched the entire 2nd
half.  Now we're going to rely on a 18-19 year old
right out of high school?  Not exactly the smartest
thing to do (though I believe Ken will be a player in
a year or two).  Let's keep Battie!
> 
> Finally, I'm going to give Obie a mulligan on the NO
> game, but I'd better
> see a trend toward the style of the opening game
> tomorrow night, and not
> toward the style we saw in NO. I know Josh was
> encouraged because it was a
> close game, on the road, and the third game in four
> nights. True enough. But
> watching it was discouraging because they went back
> to last year's style of
> trying to force it to Pierce, who then started
> forcing shots. There wasn't
> much ball movement. They didn't recognize any
> mismatches. And the rotation
> was shortened quite a bit with the emphasis on
> Blount and McCarty (Walter
> looks as bad as he ever has right now). BUT... it
> was the third game in four
> nights. The players, I'm sure, were tired mentally
> as well as physically
> (although that's no excuse for Obie). It's only
> natural to see some sloppy
> play.
> 
> But they have to find ways to handle this pressure.
> I was really
> disappointed to see less and less of the high-low
> offense in the last two
> games. They have big men perfectly suited to that
> attack, but a little
> pressure on the ball seemingly took them out of that
> altogether. And the way
> they were trying to force it to Pierce when he was
> being overplayed was
> embarrassing. What about a down screen? Or using
> Pierce as the pick man on a
> pick-and-roll? It's like Obie forgot Basketball 101.
> There are plenty of
> ways to get a guy the ball when the defense is
> overplaying like that.
> 
> OK... maybe I'm not giving him a complete mulligan.
> I thought Obie was
> terrible in that game. I'm expecting DRASTIC
> improvement tomorrow night.
> We'll see.

Yeah, Mark, no mulligans for O'Brien.  He coached
badly in NO.  You don't play James the entire 2nd half
against relentless pressure (NO had 2 different
energetic points--Davis, Armstrong--pressing for about
half of the 2nd half).  It's just plain stupid.  And
you don't play Pierce the entire second half--though
that's less egregious since Pierce, unfortunately, has
experience in doing so.  But James?  He was lagging
behind out there...meanwhile a fresh Banks was
waiting, waiting, waiting, for just a chance.  Come
on, O'Brien!  And, yes, their offense was crap, but I
put that less on O'Brien and more on the players....it
happens too often, but when they play alot of games
(such as 3 in 4 nights), get tired, and are pressured,
Paul seems to forget about his teammates (9 TOs in NO)
while his teammates forget to move.  When they're
fresh, however, it's rare that they revert...so I
guess we'll see on Wedsnesday....if we can get back to
the style of the prior two games and whether Kedrick
can bust out...

Ryan


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