Re: Kentucky Fetish? WHAT Kentucky Fetish?

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

Hi Michael:

Original point and well-argued too, but a larger issue IMHO is whether it
is productive for Rick Pitino to continue seeking out Kentucky-style
players (guys who jack up three-pointers like Mashburn, Rodney Rodgers and
Dontae Jones) at the expense of improving on his perceived NBA coaching
weaknesses (sticking with and developing genuine low-post big men, actually
using said low-post guys in a half-court set offense, effectively designing
and teaching more than a half-dozen offensive plays etc.)

I think one reason why our Celts sometimes carry solid leads into the
fourth quarter only to have quality opponents calmly catch up and beat us
is because those teams wake up to the urgency of the moment 1) by turning
to bread and butter offensive options we don't have; and 2) by figuring out
after the first 40 minutes how to contain our playground offensive antics,
just when our key guys have started to run out of wind.

We can complain all we want about "youth versus experience" and "wait 'til
we get practice time" etc., but I'm quite sure both Daly and Riley could
coach the young Celtics better than Rick Pitino could coach the frankly
mediocre on paper Orlando Magic or the injury-depleted Miami Heat. That
doesn't mean I think Pitino is a poor NBA coach, but I do think  he
probably needs to be slightly more open-minded in his approach to winning
success (3-15 is a disgrace considering no one is really injured). BTW, I'm
not sure how many established veterans he's going to attract by running
four-day-a-week practices every two weeks throughout the off-season.
Puh-lease. This might be justified if we were on the cusp of a breakout
season, rather than being one of the half-dozen crappiest teams in the
league like we are.

I think Trader Rick needs to slow down and evaluate everything with a
level-head. He needs to get a LOT more sleep, instead of working 18 hour
days. He needs to copy other plays that are out there at the NBA level and
mix it with his own solid repertoire. Coaching may be a tough business but
it's never going to be compared to rocket science, and whatever Pitino has
been doing isn't quite working. Mercer, McCarty and Walker ought to know
this defense by heart yet they still can't make it work. After two-months
of playing hard nearly every day, you can't just blame it on a "lack of
conditioning". Four-day-a-week practices after this miserable season sounds
like a recipe for mutiny.

Maybe I'm getting carried away, eh Josh? I do hope we put it all together
and win tonight. We need to beat a team like that.

****

Michael Gooen wrote:

> Although I certainly won't defend a lot of the personnel moves Pitino
> as made since coming aboard, I have to question the accusation some
> have made that Pitino has a "Kentucky fetish".  Where's the evidence?
> He inherited Walker.  He signed one former Kentucky recruit (Mills) who
> predated (some might say engendered) his tenure as coach there, then
> traded him for a package that included another Kentucky player
> (McCarty).  He drafted Mercer.
>
> That's it.  A net of 3 guys, 2 of whom can hardly be classified as
> mistakes motivated by misguided "school spirit".  And the jury's still
> out on McCarty (even though this year Walter's looked like one of those
> old electric football men that just buzzes around the field of play).
>
> Contrary to what idiots like Peter Vecsey have been printing ever since
> Pitino arrived in Boston, Pitino has not traded half the team to get
> Jamal Mashburn.  He has not picked up Tony Delk, Jeff Sheppard, Mark
> Pope or Jared Prickett.  He did not draft Nazr Mohammed, even when he
> presumably could've made the same deal Philly did to get him from Utah.
>  So where's the fetish?
>
> I'm beginning to wonder whether these Wayne Turner rumors are simply
> another Pitino smokescreen.  Perhaps he does have an interest in a
> player coming out this year, but maybe it's somebody else -- perhaps
> Ricky Moore?  There's no way to tell with this guy until it happens.
>
> I am willing to give Pitino another season -- full training camp with
> the core players working together -- to right the ship (and by that I
> mean make the playoffs).  Let's hope the core players feel the same
> way.
>
> Michael Gooen
>
> P.S.  Rodney Rogers played at Wake Forest -- not even an SEC school.  I
> don't get the apparent fascination either.  I see neither seasoned
> veteran leadership nor upside -- just a tweener forward who's played
> his way out of the Clippers' starting lineup.  But I don't judge Pitino
> on personnel moves until he actually makes them.  Otherwise, I would've
> been screaming for his head for trading Billups, Mercer, Pierce and
> either Eric Williams or Antoine for Pippen and Longley.