FWIW

["Josh Ozersky" <jozersky@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a new column up at Hoopsworld.  It runs as follows:

Looking Away



Not that anybody is on suicide watch about it, but Hoopsworld readers will
note that I haven't been writing much recently. It's not hard to understand
why. This is surely the most depressing period of Celtics history in the last
ten years, and that's saying something. With ML, you could delude yourself
that Tim Duncan was around the corner; with Pitino, you could his line of
patter, and believe that, like the loyalists who questioned Michael Corleone,
that he would "solve all our problems and answer all our questions." Obie's
best days were immediately after Pitino's abdication, and even in the darkest
days of Obiedom, there was defense and continuity and team spirit.

Now, it's like all the worst parts of the last ten years have come together at
once. Obie's offensive game plan and ML's substitution practices and Pitino's
shortsightedness. Even the draft is a gloomy prospect: the guys projected for
the top three are of the caliber that usually falls in the double digits,
topping out with yet another lanky high schooler and a non-shooting forward
with a broken back. Anyway,  the Celtics are already overstocked with talented
young players who haven't been developed. (The coaches' rebellion took care of
that; and who would have thought that John Carroll, of all people, would be
the last man standing, still shooting Walter McCarty three-pointers as Ainge's
marines take the beach?)

I can barely stand to watch at this point. The recent recrudescence of Marcus
Banks has made my life a little easier, but I can't go on demanding that
Walter's minutes be rationed around so that some actual basketball players
could see daylight. I can't keep calling out the boston sportswriters. I can't
weep for Brandon Hunter and Kendrick Perkins, buried alive on a team
desperately in need of rebounding and toughness, with a starting center who
openly pines to join Obie in the next world. I just can't take it anymore.

So Sunday's game against the wizards actually came as a profound relief to me.
Finally, a game I could ignore in good conscience! But the boxscore tells the
whole sad story to me anyway. And so I present its key components in lieu of
my sad shrill song of wasted chances.

Celtics 102, Wizards 112

Walter McCarty

Min  FG  3Pt  FT  Off  Reb  Ast  TO  Stl  Blk  PF  Pts
33    2-6  2-6  0-0   0    1       1     1   3     0     4     6

Brandon Hunter

Min FG 3Pt FT Off Reb Ast TO Stl Blk PF Pts
DNP - Coach's Decision

Total Rebounds: Wizards 39, Celtics 25

Free Throws: Celtics 17, Wizards 31

At least all of Walter's shots were three-pointers.

The 2001 Draft Revisted

In the meantime, those of us seeking diversion from Obie's Last Stand have
begun to turn our eyes draftwards. The 2003 edition of the NBA futures market
is in full effect, with the NCAA over, and an unprecedented crop of frisky
7-foot colts, Warsaw Pact Chitwoods, and Elbonian behemoths in sight. The
Celtics, just as they did three years ago, find themselves with three number
one picks.

What will they do with them? They can start by considering went wrong in
ought-one.

The 2001 draft may well have been the worst in Celtics history. I know, I
know, you can talk about traded picks all you want. But the Celtics never
badly misjudged so badly, whiffing three times in one of the deepest first
rounds ever. How they took three small forwards and still managed to miss
Richard Jefferson, right off the NCAA title game; how they passed Tony Parker
and Jaamal Tinsley up with the third pick, choosing to take a third small
forward, despite the fact that their half their roster, including their two
best players, were small forwards; how they made a secret pact with a player
who no one was interested in: all these things are the stuff of legend today.
They are cautionary tales, whispered to infant GMs to frighten them in the
crib. They're punch lines to the jokes told by Celtic-hating "trolls" on
internet message boards. The worst part is, even had all three panned out, we
wouldn't have known exactly what to do with them. Let's say that Joe Forte
turned out to be a money in the bank scorer, a go-to threat with a deadly
shot, rock-solid fundamentals, and the ability to take over a game. Let's say
that Joe Johnson became an agile, intelligent, 1-2-3 combo who could as easily
score as pass, and whose basetball IQ allowed him to excel at three NBA
positions. And let's say that Kedrick Brown became a high-flying, high-fiving,
in-yo-face scoring guard, whose lightning first step allowed him to get by
anyone he wanted.

That, roughly speaking, is what we have now in Paul Pierce, Jiri "Havliczech"
Welsch, and Ricky Davis. And again, the Celtics have to figure out where all
three of these guys are going to play. All three deserve and need to play
starter minutes. None is fit for a reserve role, at least not in today's
diluted NBA. (Imagine Kevin McHale coming out today, going with the third
pick, and then waiting six years to start.) Does that mean that one of them
may have to be dealt? It might or it might not, but it's funny how things work
out. I don't think, though, that three more whiffs in the draft will pay off
with three power forwards.

At least I hope not.