Gomes a PF

[Kim Malo]

At 04:09 PM 10/9/2006, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
>http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/
>
>Doc says he's going to have Gomes concentrate on playing the 4. Not a
>huge surprise, but with all the talk of him losing weight and working on
>his perimeter game, I wondered how they planned to use him.
>
>Couple this with Doc's comment that Gomes, Pierce, Wally and Tony Allen
>are "separating" themselves from the pack as far as the rotation goes,
>and the picture starts to become clearer. I think it's looking more and
>more like Telfair, Pierce, Wally, Gomes and Ratliff as the starters - a
>lineup I hate. But we'll see how it goes. Doc is seeing them every day
>in practice, so I'm sure he has a better handle on things, right? ...
>Right?

Nah. Never questioned Doc's handle on the court, but on the sidelines.... <g>
But a couple of interesting thoughts looking at that. I think that's 
a starting lineup begging to swap Wally and West, which should make 
you happy, although there was some talk on a chat last night about 
that very subject, where the point was made of West not so much not 
being worthy of starting but offering us more as the leadership 
anchor of the second unit and definitely more help with them than 
Wally would be. They badly needed leadership last year and whatever 
anyone may think of West's PG skills, no one can deny his leadership.

While given the likely need to limit his minutes, seems to me Ratliff 
starting may mean Perk finally gets to finish some games. That just 
seems so, so, so un-Doc like.

Gomes always has been a 4 IMO although I think more accurate is that 
much as West is truly a Dumars like plain guard vs a strict 1 or 2, 
Ryan is a plain forward vs being either a true 3 or 4. I've no doubt 
of his working hard to enable them to play him at the 3 but it seems 
clear from last season what his instincts are.
Kim