Re: Pi-stoned

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Every word of Kestas' post is dead-on. Every word. 

I was exasperated watching that game last night and angry when it was over, because I knew what I'd read from Obie and the players today: "We had great shots. They just didn't go in." I knew that would be the party line. And, of course, it was.

I don't want to hear anymore arguments about Obie only playing this style because of his personnel. He plays this style because he likes it. There's no other explanation. No post-up player? Welcome to today's NBA, where you can count the number of low-post players on one hand. So do all those other teams resort to firing up 34 three-pointers? The Kings haven't had Chris Webber all season. They have great shooters like Stojakovic, Bibby and Jackson. Do they fire up 34 three-pointers? They find ways to get shots that aren't threes. How about the Pistons? The Pacers? The Nets? The Wolves? We're talking about some of the best teams in the league. They find ways, without a post-up player, to get shots that aren't threes.

Not Obie. No post-up player? Place four guys around the perimeter, a center in the high post as a roving screener, and bomb away. It's his same strategy against a zone defense. I know dozens of high school coaches who have a better understanding of how to attack a zone defense than Obie does. 

Look, the Celtics are going to be a perimeter team. Their best scorers are Pierce, Welsch and Davis. But just because your perimeter guys are your best scorers doesn't mean you have to be purely a three-point shooting team. Each of these guys is at his best in the mid-range game and penetrating. They create good shots. You can be a guard-oriented team without being a team that falls in love with the three-point shot. Isn't that obvious?

Did anyone hear Tommy the other night (or was it last night-I can't remember), talking about Ricky Davis? He said Ricky isn't a three-point shooter, but he will be because they drill everyone to be. Great. Because that's what you want - Ricky Davis and Marcus Banks standing around the perimeter firing up three-pointers. That's really using their talents. Obie is even killing Jiri - a guy with a wonderful feel for the game and who earlier this season was always in motion. Always. With or without the ball, he was moving, searching out angles. Now he's a spot-up shooter. Of all the things I'm seeing right now, this may make me more sick than anything.

And that's saying something. Walter shooting 12 three-pointers in a game. Pierce firing from everywhere. Mike James firing from everywhere. Vin Baker boozing again. Chris Mihm getting just 18 minutes even though he has 11 rebounds, while Walter gets 35. Ricky Davis stationed in the corner on the opposite side of the floor. Kendrick Perkins and Brandon Hunter nailed to the bench. There are plenty of things to make me sick.

Of course, Obie is a survivor. He has been a master of doing just enough, when he needed it the most, to save his neck. He usually says what Ainge wants to hear (although I think all the three-point talk lately has to be pissing Danny off... and I'm not so sure that isn't Obie's intention... is he passively aggressively pointing the finger at Ainge for the EWill trade, which Obie clearly hated?) So it wouldn't surprise me if Obie the survivor turns to Hunter sometime soon. That's the kind of move that would deflect some attention from the threes and please Ainge and the fans. A little like J.R. Bremer last year. We'll see. That just feels like an Obie move. Of course, after he takes the heat off, he'll go back to Walter (if he ever leaves Walter... if Hunter does see the light of day, it may be at Mihm's expense). 

It's just so discouraging. Obie's quote about the Celtics being the top three-point shooting team in the league over the last 20 games just drives it home. He sees that stat and thinks, "Let's shoot more threes." Most of us would look at that and say, "We must be taking good shots." But when you start taking more of them, the quality of those shots will decrease and so will your percentages. Obie doesn't think that way. He doesn't understand the law of diminishing returns. We're making a good percentage of threes? More threes! We're 3-0 when Walter starts? More Walter! 

Well, this has turned into a rant. Sorry about that. 

Mark

(amending Kestas' tagline to read... Gaston, Wallace, Walker, WALTER, Obie... because I figure there's a better chance of a Walter trade during the season than there is for an Obie firing.)




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Kestas wrote:

Yes, Obie in his postgame Q&A session. He said the Pistons were just too tough in the middle so they basically decided to concede the inside and shoot threes. For that, they need a "mobile 4-man" - i.e., Waltuh. For those of you who didn't love Waltuh tonight (and that included Tommy, who basically stated that Waltuh's game is killing the Celtics - something we've been saying here all along), help is on the horizon. Obie said that once Jumaine Jones gets better in a week or so, he'll help Waltuh out as another mobile, three-shooting PF.
That reminds of Obie's coaching dictum #27:
"Always go along with what your opponent wants you to do."

It's nice to see that practice time produced the desired results - tonight's game was a tour de force of Obieball. Four stationary 3-point shooters around the perimenter and a "blitzer" center, 34 three-point attempts, sub-30% shooting. If that's not Obieball, I don't what is.
With more practice time scheduled this week, we can expect more brilliant performances of this kind.

I hope Grousbeck, Pagliuca et al. are liking what they see out of their $9M coach. Wondering on any given possession whether you'll get hit by a stray Waltuh three-pointer is sure titillating and well worth the investment.

The honeymoon is over for Waltuh on the court - now he's playing real minutes, is actually being guarded, and not surprisingly, has found his true NBA level. It's not as bad it was tonight, but it's not much better. If Tommy, of all people, can see it, anybody can. Except for Obie, that is.

Baker's mojo and his treatment by Obie sure reminds me of last year an awful lot. Pierce's comment that "we haven't had a low-post option since I've been here" was very revealing indeed.