a few thoughts

[Kim Malo]

At 09:07 AM 5/29/2006, Philip Maymin wrote:
>I'd just add that Dan Dickau is not all THAT bad. He is a very good
>offensive player, sort of a mini-Nash.

Well he's certainly not THAT good either. Or do you maybe not 
understand just how good Nash is.
I didn't care about his lousy shooting during the brief time he 
played last year (and make no mistake, it WAS horrible), because the 
one thing we know he can do is shoot. But he absolutely could not run 
the offense, which completely bogged down whenever he was in there, 
which is sort of the anti-Nash. While Nash may not be a defense first 
PG but he does play some defense. Nash makes great decisions, Dickau 
made few of them (waaaaaay too much shot clock time wasted standing 
around trying to decide what to do rather than make a decision to 
actually run an offense - again very anti-Nash) and most of them bad 
(including the decisions behind a lot of his shots).

>There were two Celtics passes
>from the preseason last year that made my mouth drop and my TiVo
>rewind button wear down: the fast break dish from Orien Greene to Big
>Al, and the bullet pass from Dickau from nearly half court in a
>non-fast break situation to a microscopically open Pierce under the
>basket.

If all it took to be a PG was the ability to make a spectacular pass, 
then Ricky would have been the perfect PG or if you want to go really 
absurd, Mark Blount, who a couple of years ago actually lead the team 
in assists for the first month and a half or so of the season.

>He's a defensive
>liability but not for lack of effort or switching ability or anything
>like that. He's just not very quick with his feet and gets faked out a
>lot.

And that's not a problem? One that could be addressed with a little 
more effort? I disagree that effort is a complete non-issue there, in 
large part because defense is all about effort, including addressing 
your weaknesses. If you're too slow, you find other ways to beat your 
guy. You spend time with tape learning guy's tendencies so you don't 
get caught by some average player's upfakes. Etc. etc. Nor do I see 
him exactly running around like a madman trying to play defense on the court.

>On 5/29/06, gene kirkpatrick <gk_tyler at yahoo.com> wrote:
>So, do we add a fourth pg and jettison Greene because his contract 
>is expendable and Dickau's is not?

That's not all there is to it, Gene. When you're on the edge of 
making/staying with the team, you don't do dumb things to tilt the 
balance the wrong way like that little 90 miles an hour run through 
Waltham not stopping for the cops. If you're Gerald Green you can 
maybe get away with looking like a headache we don't need, because 
you've talent that's tough to replace. But if you're Orien Greene...

Kim