Stern test for McGrady: In the same boat as Pierce

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stern test for McGrady: In the same boat as Pierce
By Mark Murphy/NBA Notes
Sunday, November 30, 2003

His big outburst of the year - perhaps of his career - was a week old.

     The same was true of a withering case of the flu that had held him out of
Orlando's 13th straight loss.

     Tracy McGrady returned just in time for his team's 14th straight plunge
last Wednesday to the Celtics, and the Magic guard was once again the
statesman.

     No more taking counter-shots at Tim Legler, John Thompson, Paul Silas or
any of the other national media and coaching types who had pointed a finger at
him for the firing of Doc Rivers.

     No more anger - at least on the surface - for that matter.

     ``Feels good. Don't like moral victories, but we have taken a huge step
forward,'' said the remarkably chipper McGrady. ``We're looking like a team
now, the effort is definitely there, and we just got to find a way to win a
game. What I really like, though, is how our fans were hanging in there,
supporting us, got behind us and that right there is going to help us a lot.

     ``The city is still behind us, no matter what,'' he said. ``We're 14 in
the hole but they're sticking behind us. I guarantee that we're definitely
going to get over this, get on a winning streak and get back on track. We're
playing good ball. We've just got to find a way to win a game.''

     As McGrady and his anxious public knows, Orlando's material undercuts
even its modest goals.

     When the pressure mounts, and McGrady looks for a second option, the best
he can come up with is the so-far disappointing Juwan Howard, or an
overachieving newcomer like Donnell Harvey.

     The Magic were so strapped for experience last week they signed on
37-year-old point guard Rod Strickland and, in the words of general manager
John Gabriel, expected Strickland ``to hit the floor running'' due to the
dearth of help.

     In other words, there's nowhere to look but inward for McGrady this
season.

     Paul Pierce [news] laughed when asked earlier in the day if it was easy
to see the parallels between McGrady and his own situation in the post-Antoine
Walker [news] era.

     Pierce, too, had an outburst, calling his team ``soft'' following the
Celtics' fourth straight loss to the Knicks last Monday.

     And like McGrady, that flash of anger was replaced by a larger, worldlier
view three days later.

     Both men have too much responsibility right now to indulge themselves in
rancor.

     ``There are times when you'd like to pout, or throw a temper tantrum, but
you can't allow that to happen in front of your teammates,'' said Pierce,
whose very perception of the meaning of leadership has already shifted due to
this season's changes.

     ``Oh yeah,'' he said. ``It's on a whole other level for me right now.''

     That level is only reached under the most trying of circumstances, too.

     ``Both of them carry so much of the load on the offensive end,'' Magic
coach Johnny Davis said of the Pierce/McGrady parallel. ``And the way defenses
get stacked against them - sometimes with two to three players - sometimes
it's going to wear on a guy.

     ``When you miss an important piece like Antoine, it will take time to
adjust.''

     Some things, however, don't deserve an adjustment, and chronic losing is
one of them.

     In that respect McGrady's patience - as Pierce noted that ability to
internalize one's frustration - has undergone a true test.

     ``Anytime you lose that many games, it wears on you,'' said Davis. ``And
when you have a guy who is so gifted - someone who can do so many things - it
ends up with their teammates coming to rely on them, instead of trying to
balance things out by taking on responsibilities of their own.''

     There's that parallel.

     Davis just summed up Pierce's dilemma - and the Celtics' greater need to
develop some sort of balance beyond the work of Pierce and the revitalized Vin
Baker - quite neatly.

     That's why Pierce laughed when asked about the similarities between his
situation and that of McGrady.

     ``I see a lot of parallels, man,'' said Pierce. ``He has to deal with a
lot more than most people, and it's frustrating for him.

     ``Night in and night out, he's the target,'' he said. ``It's the same
with me. It comes with the territory.''

     Unenviable territory, to be sure.

     Risky business

     It's early, and Raef LaFrentz is sure to boost the Celtics' fortunes once
he returns to full speed, but it bears noting the similarities between the
problems presented by Tony Battie's sensitive knee and LaFrentz' early
trouble.

     The last thing Celtics coach Jim O'Brien needs is to not know when he can
count on another vital part of his rotation.

     Which leads to the larger issue of just how much future benefit will be
extracted from last month's franchise-altering trade.

     The jury spoke loud and clear about who got the short-term benefit from
sending Walker to Dallas for LaFrentz, Jiri Welsch, the ghost of Chris Mills
and a 2004 first-round draft pick.

     Danny Ainge even acknowledged last week that by approving the deal for
LaFrentz, despite knowing the big guy injured his knee in September, he did
indeed go ahead with a trade for damaged goods.

     ``We'll see,'' the Celts director of basketball operations said. ``That's
a true statement for now, but in this business things change fast. Look at Vin
Baker. He might be the best low post player in the East right now.

     ``Time will tell,'' said Ainge. ``When he played in a lot of pain early
in the year, he was still effective. We're hoping he'll be even better when he
comes back.''

     Hope is not necessarily a good word in this case. But that's why future
risk was a huge part of this trade.

     Asked about future upside, Ainge passionately defended his decision.

     ``I think Jiri Welsch is a dang good player, and I think Raef LaFrentz is
a dang good player,'' he said. ``We haven't seen much of Raef because of his
injury, and so he hasn't had a chance to show much yet.

     ``But I'm really excited about what we can do flexibility-wise,'' said
Ainge. ``Whether it means taking on $5 million in a trade, or signing someone
to a mid-level exception next year, we have flexibility. I'm also very excited
about having two first-round picks for next year.''

     Though it's especially early to be handicapping a draft, Ainge said he
has already heard good things about the potential field, especially regarding
that increasingly fertile European market.

     ``There could be some very exciting players,'' said Ainge, referring to
what he has heard from general manager Chris Wallace, one of the best European
authorities in the business.

     ``Chris has come back from Europe very excited,'' he said.

     Net loss tough to call

     Alonzo Mourning's retirement due to complications in his kidney condition
is going to have a murky affect at best on his team, the New Jersey Nets.

     Considering the trundled state of the Atlantic Division, and that over
the early going the Nets weren't much - if at all - better than anyone else,
the Mourning factor is particularly tough to gauge.

     ``If you think about it, what difference did having him make in the first
place?'' said Pierce. ``It's really hard to say, because they were the best
team in the conference last year without him.

     ``But I guess it's something to think about,'' he said. ``We still don't
know if they would have been a better team with him.''

     Or you can look at it another way, according to Celtics teammate Eric
Williams.

     ``Everything changes to the point where they don't have him now,'' said
Williams. ``But they still have the same team they had last year, and that's
pretty good. (Jason) Collins is a guy I thought was really starting to come
along pretty well for them.

     ``Every other team just has to keep trying to capitalize on anything they
possibly can.''

     Skiles takes his time

     It's not the fact that Scott Skiles' name finally surfaced as a coaching
candidate again that has surprised everyone.

     It's the fact that Skiles, who took over as coach of the Bulls on Friday,
has been out of the cycle for so long.

     Like Larry Bird, Skiles must really like his golf.

     ``It's shocking that he's been out of it for so long,'' said Dallas
director of player personnel Donny Nelson.

     ``I've just got a lot of respect for him and his coaching ability. We've
served in summer leagues together, and he played in Milwaukee for my old man
(Don Nelson).

     ``It really did shock me that he wasn't mentioned or contacted at all
before now.''

     Ainge added this.

     ``Scott would be a good choice to coach somewhere. I'm a little surprised
he wasn't in the mix somewhere.''
Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx