I was talking with a fellow Celts fan last night at a party who was more optimistic about all the young players than most of the people I've talked with lately. He was really keen on Delonte West's growth, and used it to support his argument that Doc Rivers has developed the youngsters.
Today, reading Steve Kerr's analysis about why the Rockets lost their series gave me more hope for the Celtics, too. Kerr wrote,
Pierce, Green, Allen, even Ryan Gomes: these guys slash to the hoop, and all shoot threes too. Put Oden behind them on the defensive end, so everyone can play aggressive, ball-hawking, rotating defense and maybe we can get somewhere in the playoffs. If we don't get Oden, maybe Perkins+Jefferson+Ratliff can get it done with the help of Durant or Wright or Noah.
Check out ESPNs mock NBA lottery and draft. Click here then click on Play: lottery+mock draft.
Today, reading Steve Kerr's analysis about why the Rockets lost their series gave me more hope for the Celtics, too. Kerr wrote,
as we're seeing with teams like Phoenix, Chicago and Golden State, it's critical to have multiple players who can attack defenses and score the ball.
The NBA has changed quite a bit in the past five years or so, and big, stodgy teams aren't effective anymore. The Spurs have been great with Tim Duncan in the post, but only because they added Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to the mix several years back. With today's rules – the zone defense and hand checking, in particular – it's critical to have slashing perimeter players.
Zones make it easy to bottle up big men, so you have to be able to rely on perimeter penetration to generate offense. And since you can't hand check anymore, great guards can get to the rim. Look at some of the players who are dominating the league these days – Baron Davis, Steve Nash, Dwyane Wade, Ben Gordon, etc. Houston needs one of those guys.
Pierce, Green, Allen, even Ryan Gomes: these guys slash to the hoop, and all shoot threes too. Put Oden behind them on the defensive end, so everyone can play aggressive, ball-hawking, rotating defense and maybe we can get somewhere in the playoffs. If we don't get Oden, maybe Perkins+Jefferson+Ratliff can get it done with the help of Durant or Wright or Noah.
Check out ESPNs mock NBA lottery and draft. Click here then click on Play: lottery+mock draft.
Comments
I'm looking forward to watching the Suns-Spurs in a few minutes. In advance of that, I watched the YouTube of Bruce Bowen's alleged "dirty play" on Amare' Stoudamire's Achilles tendon. The cahrges are completely false and ridiculous. It's obvious from watching the video that the Achilles tendon kick was an inadvertent and unfortunate accident that resulted from Bowen's rush to get his foot in position to break Stoudamire's ankle when he landed.
I think the emphasis on the dunk is way overblown--to the detriment of good, sound, find the open man basketball at times. That said, Baron Davis's exclamation point in Kirelenko's grill is unbelieveable. How does he shift gears in mid-air? Amazing!