re:Orlando

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

Joe,

I watched about half of the game last night and I don't really think you 
can say that Mercer was playing point guard.  When Barros wasn't in the 
game, the team was playing without a point guard, and Antoine brought 
the ball up the court most of the time, basically uncontested as his man 
was waiting for him at the foul line.  I only mention this because I 
worry that people will start suggesting that Kenny or Dana could be 
traded and Mercer and Pierce could be the regular backcourt.  That would 
leave them very susceptible to any fullcourt pressure.  Can you imagine 
Ron trying to bring it up against Mookie Blaylock or Gary Payton for a 
full game?  And, if you give a team a chance to prepare for this lineup, 
don't you think 'Toine might see some coverage in the backcourt?  Walter 
could be left unguarded and he'd turn it over 5 times.  Pierce handles 
it well for a forward, but below average for a guard.  I do get the 
feeling I missed a lot of Ron's better moments, though, because I 
thought he had a pretty poor first quarter, including a couple of blown 
layups and poor decisions.

Jim


>From: j.hironaka@unesco.org
>
>In my opinion it was a clever move putting 6-7 Ron Mercer at point 
guard against Penny Hardaway. The numbers were an eye-opener (27 points, 
7 assists, 6 steals), hopefully for both coach and player. I can only 
imagine what great fun it must have been for Ron Mercer to put up those 
kinds of well-rounded pro numbers, playing a Penny Hardaway role for the 
Celtics.
>

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