RE: The Atkins Diet is Hunter

[Kim <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Totally agree on Hunter, including that it's not a dis.
As to Chuckie hindering Marcus' development, I don't have the same concerns. Development doesn't occur just by PT. One of my first thoughts when the deal was done was that now Marcus had someone to develop by practicing against, which has been lacking and is essential for a young player. James and he played too dissimilar games, and the sort of development I'm talking about is what a competative kid gets by learning from how an experienced veteran abuses him personally, which can also mean taking PT minutes away from him - i.e. not as effective a lesson from a coach. Chuckie is a lot more the style of PG Marcus will be (albeit you're right in pointing to Chuckie's defensive issues, which Marcus does not have), and similar enough in size that it will be technique and tricks - something Marcus can learn from - that he would use to beat him, not posting him up because of just being 6" taller. As to Mihm, as I was saying to someone at the game last night, I wonder about his IQ, because even he says he still has not learned the defense yet, which has been a big part of the problem with his getting minutes. And has a direct bearing on the foul problem, because a fair share of them come from diving at or slapping at someone through being late on coverage. I like Mihm too, but...

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Giovanello <sgiovanello@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Feb 28, 2004 4:33 PM
To: 'Dan Forant' <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Celtics@xxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: The Atkins Diet is Hunter

Personally, I think Hunter will settle a little bit back to earth the
more games and minutes he logs.  I don't see that as a knock on his
game.  If you peg him in at 12 points and 10 rebounds he is a ENORMOUS
SUCCESS.  I think he should be able to perform around those levels so
its not like I am dissing him in anyway.  Is it possible for him to pull
a u-e?  I guess so.  It might mean that we he plays some better teams
and when the book gets out on him the more he plays that some flaw will
be seen and exploited.  However, I don't think that is likely.  The only
possible thing I can think of is that he will have trouble defending
people 1 on 1 - he looks pretty quick and strong, but I don't think we
will really know until he plays against some good quick power forwards
and some good strong power forwards that are taller than him.  I think
he will be better than any of us ever imagined and be a key cog for this
team now and in the future.  

As for Atkins, I am far less sure of what he will bring.<snip>
 The second question is to whether he will prove just
good enough to hamper the development of Marcus Banks.  I hope that will
not be the case.  I am not a big fan of Banks learning totally by
watching and firmly believe that this team is best served by him logging
20 minutes every night.  If Atkins hampers that, I think its both
shortsighted and hurts the team more than it helps.

The last point I will address is Mihm.  I will firmly admit to being on
the Mihm bandwagon.  The one downside to Hunter getting more minutes is
that it seems that they are coming at the expense of Mihm.  Blount
should be the one losing minutes under this scenario.  Hunter glides
into the PF slot.  Mihm slides over to his natural position center-
where his fouls should go way down.  The problem is that Blount
continues to perform good enough to stay at center and the relationship
between coach and GM seems to make it difficult for the switch to occur.
<snip>