"The Celtics Revisited..." (October 11, 1998)

Here is my last installment of the best of Hoop-LA. This was written before last season talking about the Boston Celtics and new general.

So it's more than a week after the draft and teams are either licking their chops for the upcoming season, or licking their wounds from the draft.Where do the Celtics lie? It has been said (and maybe too much I believe) that the Celtics did not do too well in the draft because they got two high picks and no big man.

Well, let me answer that by saying the only real available big man was Tony Battie. Battie could have fit the Pittino style of basketball (let's be realistic, Foyle or Cato just didn't have the basketball skills to play for Pittino). Ok, back to Battie. I think people may have overstated his skills. He had a good year in college and surprised everyone by his pre-draft workouts. But he wouldn't be the first one (look at Antonio McDyess) who improved himself via the pre-draft workout. Battie is a good player, but I think Pittino is looking at the medium to long run, not next year to get his team better. Sure it has been said that there are a glut of decent to good shooting guards (this is where people question taking Ron Mercer) but in fact, I don't think there are many shooting guards with the athleticism of Mercer and the potential for stardom. Players like Doug Christie and Voshon Lenard play themselves into good 2-guards, but Mercer has the chance to be an all-star. We saw it t the college level. He's 6'8" (so he's big) and over 200 pounds (so he's strong). He's fast and runs disciplined routes (kind of like a football player) where he comes off picks and lets fly a sweet jumper.

People have said he lacks the deep 3 pointer range and the ability to create for himself. While I think he won't be able to dribble-drive past some defenders in a one-on-one situation, he has proven that he's a good low post player, so he can score there as well as creating for himself up top. As for the deep ball, players can learn. Grant Hill can't shoot for three. LJ couldn't until he taught himself. Jordan taught himself. I think Pittino will be a good influence and he'll become a good two guard in this league. He'll have a relatively easy time because the lack of quality of 2 guards in the East relative to the other divisions (Chaney-Wash, Houston-NY, Gill/Kittles-NJ, Stackhouse-Phi, Lenard-Mia, Anderson-Orl). Most important, Pittino needs horses to play in his system. He needs real thoroughbreds who can run for 35 minutes and pressure the ball. Mercer is just the man for it.

With the Celtics first pick, there was much less controversy. They picked up a potential all-star in Chauncey Billups. Billups is the 90s point guard, shoot first and pass second, but he can pass, unlike other point guards who have been known as scorers. He is super strong for his body size and can finish. Most important, he will take over at the point for David Wesley who has scarpered to Charlotte. He'll pair with Mercer, to give the Celts a strong back court. Pittino will have the guy he needs to run the floor, run the team, make good decisions, penetrate (so the wing men can hit the outside jumpers) and he can finish off the plays as well. He's a keeper.

The Celts probably made a mistake in taking Eric Williams a couple of years ago, but now it's crunch time for the young Providence graduate. He has to play some serious minutes this year because it is unlikely Rick Fox is back, so he'll probably be either the number 1 sub or the starting small forward, depending on where Antoine Walker plays.

Walker is a phenomenal talent. He'll be a player in this league and with the re-teaming up of Mercer, Walker and Pittino, there should be some great things happening. Walker can do it all. He has a power forward body and game and a small forwards game too boot. He's probably better off at 3, but with the lack of depth up front at 4, he'll get a lot of time banging down low. No matter where he plays, he'll be close to a 20 and 10 man. He's that good. Besides, Pittino knows who has talent and who doesn't.

I assume Radja is gone, regardless of the nullified trade. He just doesn't fit into the Pittino mold of players. He's slow and doesn't play tenacious defense. He can still score down low, but doesn't really run the floor like the teams needs. Pittino is stuck with some big contracts unless he can unload them, like Dana Barros, who might come around under Pittino (like Travis Ford, Tony Delk and Anthony Epps, other small players who didn't really fit the mold of the point guard, but nonetheless played well). Pervis Ellison will have to stay healthy or the Celts will not have an athletic center. I wonder if Dee Brown will decide to play this year. He has the athletic capability to play for Pittino, but Rick will ship his sorry butt out of town if Brown poisons the team. Brown still can play in this league, and still could be a good player for the second squad.

The other cast of characters are meaningless. I assume if he could, he'd dump most of them and sign free agents instead. But since this is the NBA and he can't just recruit new players every year, he's stuck with what he's got. What he has is major mistakes from the M.L. Carr regime. Will the Celts make the playoffs this year? Probably not. But if they can have one more good draft and dump some players to make room for the bumper free agent crop of 1998, then look for the Celts to make a run for the playoffs in two years. Players like to play for Pittino. If he should be able to clear out some cap space, I'm sure Antonio McDyess, Joe Smith or Kevin Garnett would love to play for Pittino.

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