Re: Thoughts on the Holley article

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> Please, PLEASE  don't "tinker" with Vitaly's game! He's way too promising for
> that. Get yourself another one of these Schintzius- or Garnett-types whose
> games you've been so successfully tinkering with.

The point of a coach is to "tinker" with players' games. Vitaly is a
promising player but can surely improve and has the work ethic to do 
anything that Pitino asks. I can just imagine it, "Vitaly, if you just
put on another 40 pounds of muscle..." Seriously though, his hands come
to mind.
 
> OK, let's see: McCarty is here supposedly because of his defense, right?
> Still, we knew he couldn't guard PFs because he's not strong enough, but now
> it turns out he can't guard SFs either, because he's not quick enough?
> According to his stats, he also can't shoot, score, pass, or rebound. So, wha
 *t
> is it that he CAN do, exactly, for his 2.5 mil/per?

Not being able to guard Grant Hill doesn't mean you can't defend SFs.
I think McCarty is not supposed to be the ideal half court defender 
but rather a press defender. I agree that McCarty hardly seems worth 
2.5 million though.

> Take Portland, for example: <snip>

Your analogy with Portland is interesting because before this year,
Portland was considered by many to be a cluelessly assembled, 
underachieving group of misfits. Suddenly everything clicks and
they are the model team. It's easy to be so critical with hindsight.

> My question is, does the Portland front office not operate under the same
> constraints as ours? 
 
You've hit it exactly on the nose. Portland has an advantage of having a 
billionaire owner who can spend unlimited amounts of cash. How many teams 
have an $80M backup PF/C (Wallace)? Cleveland traded Potapenko because they 
weren't willing to pay their backup center $30M. He's spent a huge amount 
on Stoudamire not even including the two years of Anderson's salary he 
picked up.

> how far are we going with *Pitino's* signees like Bowen 
> McCarty, Garnett, Schintzius, Riley & Jones? They may be great to "tinker"
> with, but how many of these players would crack a contending team's roster,
> let alone the main rotation?

Jeez, with the exception of McCarty, the rest are minimum salary, short
term pickups to fill out the roster. You are really nitpicking here. 
In a few years, these roster spots will be filled with draft picks instead.
For now, it makes no difference who's filling our injured list.

Alex