RE: patience with youth

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

Sorry to confuse the issue with the highlights from Billups' April. My
point wasn't that we should not have traded Billups or that we would be
better off with Billups at the point now or even that Billups is currently
a big-league PG. I agree with the earlier assessments of Venkat and Josh
concerning Chauncey's deficiencies and for that very reason tried to temper
my previous discussion of Billups by noting his glaring shortcomings as a
PG (vision, tempo, distribution).

What I really wanted to point out the irony of Pitino's current emphasis on
"patience with youth" - the very thing that Pitino has failed to
demonstrate in the past. (How old was Chauncey anyway? 20?) Even earlier
this season, Pitino's tirades on the shortcomings of youth - *GASP* quoting
Riley of all people! - hardly communicated "patience". 

You note also that Pitino "said at the very beginning of this season that
he didn't expect to make the playoffs until year 3". That's fine, I think
most fans can accept that - its the regression from last year's level of
play that's killing people!

The other aim I sought to achieve with my discussion of Billups was to see
if others concurred regarding the particular difficulty this year's squad
has shown in closing out games (but then they've had all sorts of
difficulties. . . ). I have to agree with your nicely stated and
illustrated point, however, concerning the role of vets in teaching other
teams "how to win". Now if only we had some. . .

Ciao for now

Tom Murphy

>Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 13:41:19 -0800
>From: peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>
>Subject: Re: Billups etc.
>
>Thomas Murphy wrote:
>
>>Ellie Cutler made a series of nice observations a little while
>>ago, one of them concerning the value of "patience with youth" with
regard
>>to Chauncey Billups, who is so far having a spectacular April. In case
you
>>missed it, here's some of what he's done:
>
>Unless Chauncey Billups has been doing all these wonderful things as a
POINT
>GUARD, which as far as I know he hasn't, I don't see where any of this is
>relevant. We already have a good player at the 2, and I wouldn't trade
Mercer
>for Billups and his shooting percentage. Its also not like Billups is
helping
>Denver to a stellar winning percentage.
>
>>If anyone is guilty of creating ridiculously high
>>expectations it is Pitino himself. 
>
>True to a point, but he said at the very beginning of this season that he
>didn't expect to make the playoffs until year 3. 
>
>I'm as surprised as anyone that we've got a worse record than teams like
>Philly, Toronto and Golden State, but look at what each of those teams
added
>in the offseason: veterans. George Lynch, Harvey Grant, Tyrone Hill,
Oakley,
>Willis, Terry Cummings, John Starks, Chris Mills. That some of those guys
>rightfully should be on their way to the glue factory doesn't take away
from
>the fact that they have been a very psoitive influence on their young
>teammates and have been the key crunch time performers. They know how to
win;
>a bunch of 22 year olds don't, at least not yet. SEVEN of our top 9 guys
have
>played 3 years or fewer in the league and are 23 years old or younger.
That is
>really astonishing when you stop and think about it.
>
>------------------------------