What I think are some problems with the Celtics.

[Michael Joseph Byrnes <mbyrnes@leland.Stanford.EDU>]

Assuming the Celtics make *no* moves (except for signing Popeye Jones and
Paul Pierce), they will have some very talented players, but also some
glaring weaknesses.  Their roster would be something like this:

	 C: Knight, DeClerq, Ellison
	PF: Walker, P.Jones
	SF: Pierce, McCarty, Minor, 
	SG: Mercer, Bowen, D.Jones
	PG: Anderson, Barros

The strength of this team would be its "five scorers": Walker, Pierce,
Mercer, Anderson, and Barros.  

However, a weakness is the lack of scoring threats after thos five.  Key
bench players DeClerq, Bowen, P.Jones and Ellison (if healthy) cannot
score.  Knight, McCarty, and Minor are a little better, but far too
inconsistent.  At times, the Celtics will have only 2-3 of their "scorers"
out there, and teams will be able to focus on those players.  Improvement
from Knight and McCarty is the most likely source of help in this area,
short of a roster move.

Another weakness is the Celtics' lack of inside, post up, offensive
players.  Walker is the best they have, but he isn't all that great at it.
His game seems to be using his perimeter skills and athleticism to beat 
power forwards.  The lack of a true inside threat is going to hurt, as
opposing teams force the Celtics to become a jump shooting team in the
halfcourt set.  Walker, Mercer, Pierce, and Anderson will have trouble
driving against defenses that concede the jumper and have a center who can
"forget" his man and concentrate on helping defend the basket against the
C's drives to the hoop.  Granted, Walker, Pierce, Mercer, Anderson, and
Barros can all shoot, but I've never seen a strictly jump shooting offense 
have much success.  Their best hope for improvement is Walker becoming
more of a post up player (remember Pitino once suggested that Walker add
20lbs.?), along with some offense from Knight.  (Along with offensive
rebounding from Popeye Jones when the Celtics are in jump shooting mode.)
The 80s Celtics halfcourt offense was so great because they could score
from inside and outside.

Finally, the Celtics don't have enough ballhandlers.  They really have one
point guard (Anderson), one "ballhandling" guard (Barros), and a collection 
of small forwards (Mercer, Pierce, Bowen, Minor).  After Anderson and
Barros, Antoine Walker is probably the closest thing the Celtics have to a
guard.  Which leads to Antoine holding the ball too much.  In reality, the
Celtics will probably need another point guard on the roster because they
would really be in a jam if Anderson or Barros were to be injured in a
game.  Best hope for help here is that Mercer continues to develop into a
true guard, rather than a small forward playing guard.  (I can't help
thinking that Derek Anderson would be a nice fit on this team, but I don't
see us matching up with Cleveland well in a deal.)

Anyway, the C's still do have a lot of strengths as well -- they should be
very good in the fullcourt game, and they should continue to force a lot
of turnovers.  And, they have four young, very talented starters in Walker,
Mercer, Anderson, and Pierce.  They also have good "role players" in Dana
Barros, Bruce Bowen, Walter McCarty, Andrew DeClerq, and Popeye Jones.
I'm hoping that Travis Knight can step up next year as a starter and take
some heat off of our "money" players.

Michael Byrnes
mbyrnes@stanford.edu