RE: Beware the Riscky path.

[Kim Malo <kimmalo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 12:03 PM 3/31/2004, Pereira, Jorge M wrote:

> Just to add to that.  I would be very leery of getting Kwame Brown. 1st, 
> stats in the last 2 weeks of the season don't count.  Too many "when's 
> golf" games.  2nd, why would Washington give up on a young #1 overall pick 
> after investing only 3 years?  3rdly, when I watch him I see too much of 
> the Kedrick Brown syndrome (my opinion).  A player who breezed through his 
> youth because of overwhelming physical prowess but never quite developed 
> all the necessary run-of-the-mill skills to do battle with the pros.

3rdly etc does a great job of analyzing what I just mentioned. Particularly 
the overreliance on athleticism and likely reason why. Lots of guys today 
do that - you could put several current and former Celtics in that 
category. But they've always been said to at least try to work in practice. 
That supposedly been an increasingly worrisome issue with Kwame, now that 
it's clearly not just because of being intimidated/put down by MJ (last 
season's excuse). With no signs of his getting it about any immediate need 
for change. That's a bit part of why I think Washington might actually be 
very willing to given up on him after only 3 years. What's the Bull Durham 
line about million dollar arm ten cent head or something like that?

> What struck me as most interesting during a live game at the Fleet was how 
> the crowd holds its collective breath while a 3 pointer is flying.  If it 
> goes in everybody goes nuts, if not everybody still goes crazy.  I think 
> that's why people love Waltah and Jiri.

Ah, it must not have been a game I attended or else I wasn't swearing at 
the shot as loudly as I thought <g>

> Speaking of Jiri.  I love Jiri and he's made that play work 20+ times 
> without the hard, emphatic slam dunk. Now, really, was there a need for 
> that? Or is he also going down the riscky path?  Sorry couldn't resist it...

<g> But kidding aside, I think there's something in the idea that it was a 
shot at/take off on Ricky. There are signs of a real mano a mano 
there,  based in competition for minutes -since the regular rotation has 
been subbing one for the other. I remember reading and mentioning here an 
article a while back that pointed to Ricky's arrival vs the usual 
explanations like just hitting the wall as the basis of Jiri's decline in 
play, because he changed what he was trying to do and show he could do once 
he had to compete with Ricky for PT.

Kim