Picking his spots and making moves

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Picking his spots and making moves
By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 10/30/2003

With the Celtics, it's always been about eras.

      ADVERTISEMENT

There was the Cousy Era, followed by the Russell Era, followed by the
Havlicek/Cowens Era, followed by the Bird Era, and then what would have been
the Reggie Lewis Era. And for the last seven years we were living in the
Antoine Era.

Now it appears we're entering a new phase, the Ainge Era.

Sure, the marquee player now is Paul Pierce, and Paul Pierce alone. He is the
only potential All-Star. But there is no doubt whose vision is guiding this
franchise now. Not since Red himself brought true fast-break basketball to
this town by turning Bob Cousy loose some 53 years ago has a general manager
or coach been so omnipresent. Danny Ainge is clearly going to do it his way or
go down in flames trying.

Anyone who had listened to Danny broadcast games involving the Celtics knew he
was no fan of Antoine Walker's game. It wasn't personal. It was professional.
No one said that Antoine wasn't charitable or didn't have a good heart. But he
did have a specific game and a specific self-view, and neither appealed to
Ainge. It's a classic sports debate. Each side will have ample opportunity to
prove its point.

But the remake of this team began on draft night, when Ainge acquired the
draft rights to Marcus Banks and declared that his intention was to run. There
would be no more of this incessant 3-point mania that has gripped this team
the past several years. Three-pointers would always have their place (at least
until the powers that be come to their collective senses and do away with this
misguided concept), but they would no longer become the Celtics' raison
d'etre. Right away you know that would eventually exclude Antoine, since he
had made it clear he wasn't interested in playing any other way.

Danny certainly isn't stupid. He understands very well how difficult life can
be in this league for a rookie point guard. He knew there would be growing
pains with Banks. But he also knew that if he was ever going to see this team
re-commit to an uptempo game it would have to be with a speedy point guard,
and that no one on the roster he inherited fit that description. It was going
to be a youngster, and, fortunately for Danny Ainge, this was a draft
sufficiently deep in point guards to allow one as talented as Banks to be
available when Memphis took him with the 13th pick.

Make no mistake. Mike James, an archetypical journeyman, is the immediate
present, and nothing more. Banks is the future.

The interesting party in this team transformation is Jim O'Brien. He had
publicly embraced the bombs-away offensive approach of this team, stating
simply that a team had to play to its strengths and away from its weaknesses,
and exactly who was supposed to be the inside force who could be thrown the
ball 15 or 20 times a game? The answer, of course, was Antoine, but only
against certain opponents and only when he was in the mood. It took me a while
to get it in my head that Antoine just wasn't sufficiently agile (I'm trying
to avoid the code word "athletic") down there to get his shots off against
some of the more physically gifted players who were guarding him. Think Kenyon
Martin, and we needn't go any further. And there were others (Tim Duncan?
Omigod).

Tony Battie is a total finesse guy, so forget that. Mark Blount? Maybe. In
fact, I'm curious to see what transpires with him this year. Leo Papile and
Chris Wallace may yet be proven right with this guy. I'll go on record right
now and say he'll have a 20-point game some time this year.

But none of this adds up to serious, consistent low-post scoring, so O'Brien
swung completely in the other direction, commissioning Antoine, Pierce, and
just about anyone who had a notion to fire up a three as a basis of the
Celtics' offense. You can't exactly say it was stupid if it gets you within
two games of the Finals, which it did two years ago.

You also can't say it was effective enough, and you sure can't say it was
pretty.

The question is, who is the real Jim O'Brien, and can he adapt to Danny's way
of doing things? Or should he have his resume ready to go, just in case?

I think Jim O'Brien is the ultimate pragmatist. I think he is a sound,
orthodox basketball man who is not afraid to implement a drastic measure if he
believes it represents his best chance of success. I believe that if Jim
O'Brien were either scouting a typical Celtics game of the past three years or
attending it for pleasure, he would come away almost disgusted because it
would have violated his personal vision of what the game should look like. I
also think he would have recognized that the guy putting that team on the
floor had been of the belief that he had no other choice. I believe Jim
O'Brien wanted to win games and keep his job and was willing to make more than
one pact with more than one devil. And I believe Jim O'Brien will have no
trouble shifting gears. He has never attempted to bang square you-know-whats
into round you-know-whats, and he isn't going to start now. He will play with
the hand Ainge intends to deal him. If it doesn't work out, there will always
be other jobs available for O'Brien, because the entire NBA knows he is a
fully qualified head coach whose lack of ego will permit him to return to the
auxiliary role of chief assistant as if he had never left it.

This is Danny's team now. Jim O'Brien will coach it to his fullest; don't you
worry about that.

) Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
 PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION     E-MAIL TO A FRIEND




Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of comcast_bigad_102203_1.gif]

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of tool_printer_friendly.gif]

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of tool_email_to_a_friend.gif]

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of advertiser_links.gif]

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type application/octet-stream which had a name of imp.gif?client=ca-boston_416x144&event=noscript]