RE: SonicsCentral.com Brent Barry Scouting Report

["R. Singh" <keltsfan@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Barry is one of the best open floor players and he is an exceptional
passer so I can see Ainge's fascination with him especially given the
braintrust's desire to put in place offensively gifted players that can
score in explosive fashion.  Barry would facilitate an excellent fast
break assuming the Celtics address their rebounding deficiencies as well
as reign in Paul Pierce's overcontrol of the ball. 

In the half court, with a proper motion based offense, Barry would excel
as he does move well without the ball and as stated before he is an
exceptional passer.  He is not able to take his defender off the dribble
and thus is unable to create shots for himself but again, with enough
motion, or solid penetration by a teammate and kick out, he will knock
down open looks. Put a guy in his face and he won't give you any
scoring. However, a team that has a Pierce and Davis on the floor would
make it very difficult to put a defender in Barry's face.

He is not a leader.  He does defer to more aggressive teammates.  His
game became much more passive when Ray Allen returned from injury and
consequently his performance and minutes have dropped.  He is perfectly
fine distributing the ball to guys that want it. That can both be a good
thing and a bad thing. Good in the sense that, as Mark pointed out, he
is unselfish, bad in the sense that Paul Pierce really really wants the
ball in his hands...all the time. 

He is 32 years old and obviously would only be coming is for a couple of
years, maybe three, allowing a younger player such as Banks/rookie to
develop appropriately. So I can see the logic in that. 

But again, poor defense, lack of intensity and disappearing acts make me
nervous. It's not like he's a twenty year old Joe Johnson just learning
the NBA game, needing time to develop emotionally and physically.  This
guy is a veteran. 

Ravi



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-celtics@xxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-celtics@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Douglas342@xxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 7:51 AM
To: celtics@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: SonicsCentral.com Brent Barry Scouting Report


   I saw Barry play several times when he was with the Clippers and
concur that he is NOT the guy this team needs.  I thought that the
argument about loading up with 3-point specialists was over?  Yeah, he
runs around a lot and shoots threes.  Now doesn't that sound like
someone else?  A tad sus[ect on defense?  
    FWIW, I don't like Van Exel either.  He's getting long in the tooth
and has a rep of being not the best teammate.  The young players need a
solid, supportive teammate.