Simmons on the Celtics

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

I copied this from the Sons of Sam Horn board. I hope he doesn't mind.
His hint about the front-runner to be the next coach has to be Westphal,
doesn't it? I'm torn on Westphal. I loved the way his Suns teams played.
He's a veteran coach who has seen it all. He dealt with a zoo in
Seattle. All that is good. But, by all accounts, he didn't handle that
zoo in Seattle very well. Of course, we're talking about Vin Baker and
Gary Payton (who only wants Phil Jackson to play him more, run more
plays for him and scrap the triangle offense -- in other words, he's
completely insane). Plus, Westphal wasn't the GM's guy in Seattle. He
was bound to be the fall guy. If Danny hires him, I expect it's for the
long haul -- in other words, if there's a dispute with the player, Ainge
will side with the coach. That's important. My biggest concern is I'm
not so sure Pierce can stay focused for a player-friendly coach like
Westphal. We'll see. I'd be in favor of this hire, bottom line.

Mark

P.S. If there's one thing I hope Ainge will learn as he grows into this
job, it's that discretion is a good thing. Honesty and frankness are
great when you're an announcer. They're not so good when you're a GM. I
actually believe him when he says the coaching staff (Obie) told him
Songaila couldn't play. And while I think he should have checked
Songaila out more himself, I also understand him taking their word for
it. We're talking about a second-round pick that Ainge didn't make who
was playing in Russia. At some point, you have to trust the people
around you. Of course, if there's one person in the world, other than
Chris Wallace or Rick Pitino, who I wouldn't trust for player
evaluation, it's Obie. I still remember his quote after working out Joe
Johnson before the 2001 draft (yes, finally and definitively, Obie was
the head coach then), when he said "if we could draft Joe Johnson, it
would be a dream come true." Uh huh. Anyway, on to Simmons...


Blount was unbelievable last night - he looked like vintage Robert
Parish. Although I'm not getting too excited since it was against
Orlando, who might have the worst frontcourt in the history of the
league right now. I just hope this isn't a contract run ala Pervis in
'95 or '96, when he played well for the last 12-15 games of the season
and ML overreacted by giving him a dumb contract. Bottom line is the
guy's been around for awhile and he was traded straight-up for Shammond
Williams 12 months ago. Recent NBA history is littered with big guys
like Cal Booth, McIllvane, Jerome James, etc who put it all together for
about 3 months during a contract year, then fell apart when they got the
money. I'm nervous about this - hope this doesn't result in an ML-like
move - we could potentially be shelling out $14-15 million a year for
Blount and Raef.

On the other hand, Chucky Atkins has been a pleasure to watch. I still
don't agree with the trade, but he's an upgrade from Mike James - at
least he thinks like a point guard. I actually enjoyed watching him last
night.

This team could make the playoffs, sadly - mainly because Toronto fell
apart, Washington and Philly never got it together and the Knicks are
freefalling. If Pierce suddenly wakes up from his two-month hibernation
and goes on one of those "29 pts, 9 rebs, 8 asts" streaks for about 4
weeks, we're probably getting the 6th spot and the right to get killed
by Indy or Detroit.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I'm torn on the tanking issue... in '97, i hated watching that team and
wanted them to lose, but this isn't an unlikable team. When PP, Blount,
Hunter, Welsch and Atkins are out there, it's difficult to root against
them. and I would always feel like they had a puncher's chance against
Indy or Detroit in a series because we would have the best player (PP,
assuming he decides to start playing hard again).

Here's the key: no matter how badly they tank from now on, they aren't
getting worse than the 7th pick (and Charlotte is guaranteed one of the
top-3 lottery spots). So I don't know. This sucks. I can't believe we're
at this point again.

Hopefully this will turn out like '98 - that team could have packed it
in, didn't, made a decent push for a playoff spot, then ended up with
Pierce at No. 10. Things have a funny way of working out sometimes.

Couple more things...

1. Sichting isn't the front-runner for next year. It's someone else.
Former Celtic. Easy to figure out if you think like Danny for a second,
consider the people that have passed through his life as a player, and
consider the team he's trying to build.

2. There is no way that Dwight Howard goes lower than first.

3. The buzz is that Telfair is coming out, so that's another body for
the top-7.

4. I guess Isiah isn't a genius after all.