Gomes not a three? Phsaw!-ProJo

[Andy]

>
Three things:

1) This is another indicator that the Celtics may acquire a big man  
in the coming draft or via other means during the summer.  Gomes has  
shown he can be an effective power forward, but he probably won't  
ever be a great power forward.  To be optimally effective he has to  
be a big small forward, or at least have those perimeter skills to go  
along with his good positioning and footwork while playing big in a  
more uptempo style.

2) If Gomes is able to stretch his game and become more mobile, that  
only increases the ongoing glut of potential wings on the roster,  
adding to Pierce, Szczerbiak, Allen, and Green (one year away still  
from really contributing I think).

3) Perkins, LaFrentz and Jefferson are not fleet frontcourters.   
Dwyane Jones is, but cannot be considered a rotation guy.  The  
Celtics need is a long agile rebounding, running big man.  Tyrus  
Thomas would fill the bill.  There are others in this draft as well.

If they pick one of the long tall guys in the draft (and that's far  
from a sure thing), they could get a vet point via trade of one of  
the excess wings, and the roster would be in balance.  If they go  
point in the draft, I guess they can try and get the big man by  
trade, though that will be tough.

If they take another wing in the draft (and they may have to if  
someone drops into their laps) Gomes would be playing a Phoenix Suns  
type power forward role for the time being.


A side note on the Suns:  It's very impressive what they're doing  
with no traditional center and indicates something I've long  
suspected, which is that if the 70's small, swift Cowens/Havlicek  
teams played in today's league, they would be just as effective now  
as they were then.  They were at least as fast as the current Suns,  
and much better defensively to boot.


--Andy




> This is good news. Even if he plays some 4 -- and he will -- his
> advantages at that position are his quickness and ball skills (along
> with his natural feel for the game and rebounding). He's never  
> going to
> be a big banger, so why slow down by bulking up? I was afraid that  
> would
> be the approach he would take and it never works.
>
> Mark
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: celtics-bounces at igtc.com [mailto:celtics-bounces at  
> igtc.com] On
> Behalf Of JB
> Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 6:16 AM
> To: Celtics List
> Subject: Gomes not a three? Phsaw!-ProJo
>
> "The Celtics have told Gomes to lose weight over the summer and  
> work on
>
> his perimeter skills."
>
>
> <http://www.projo.com/celtics/content/
> projo_20060525_25rencol.1cb3f3a5.html>
>
> excerpt:
>
> {"This where I work on behind-the-scenes stuff," Gomes says. "And I
> know that other guys are working out, too, that I can't just take the
> summer off."
>
> Gomes knows this is a business, that it's the basketball equivalent of
> kill or be killed. Either continue to get better or someone will take
> your minutes as quickly as a begger will steal food off your plate.  
> The
>
> Celtics have told Gomes to lose weight over the summer and work on his
> perimeter skills. He doesn't have to be told twice.
>
> "I'm trying to be in this league for a long time," he says.}