Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: Celtic Support (was Re: miscellanea...)
From: bcimmet@eagle.wesleyan.edu
Date: 20 Dec 92 23:57:17 EST
Organization: Wesleyan University

In article <BzLDK9.I67@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, krust@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (Kelly Rust) writes:
> A few observations as we've rounded the first turn.

> WHAT IS THAT DISGUSTING GREEN?  Don't want to hurt that Celtic Pride,
> but this is not a good team.  Xavier McDaniel?  Kevin Gamble is a 
> player?  Sherman Douglas is the antithesis of Celtic Tradition - he's
> unbearable to watch...Joe Kleine?  Is Reggie Lewis an All-Star?  Let's
> see...Jordan and Thomas will get elected, take Miller and Price,
> Dumars, Hornacek, ...yeah, if they take SEVEN guards...

Okay... You obviously hate the Celtics. That's not good. We have to do
something about that. Now bear in mind that in 1978, the year before the
arrival of his majesty Larry Bird, the Celtics were in last place. Bird swung
them around into a championship team (see Boston Garden rafters). Now that he's
gone, it's quite a difficult transition to make. They have done an admirable
job in restructuring the team without Bird. At my last look, they were only a
game or two below .500, and that is in a division that has the New York Knicks
who, under Pat Riley, have turned into a strong championship contender. They
are also facing a lot of new faces that have to get used to each other.
McDaniel and Douglas are new to Boston, and Gamble, Lewis, Brown, Kleine and
Pinckney have only had two or three years together. McHale and Parish are still
hanging on as well. The team is struggling, and will obviously not fare as well
as Celtics of the past. But they are certainly not to be reacted to with "WHAT
IS THAT DISGUSTING GREEN?"
	Reggie Lewis as an all-star? Well, it's debatable. He is one of the
most prominent scoring guards in the Eastern Conference. Obviously, he won't
get selected over Jordan or Miller as a scorer, and he's not a point guard, so
you can't compare him to Thomas or Price. Joe Dumars of '89 was better, and
Hornacek of Phoenix was better, but Dumars '92 and Hornacek-Philly are not
quite the guard that Lewis is. Also, Lewis has the ability to move down and
play the forward spot, and of the players you mentioned, only Miller could pull
that off. Oh, and Jordan, because he's superman. And as for Kevin Gamble, I
recall that he was one of the most problematic small forwards for other teams
last year, being that he managed to adequately defend players who were 6-8 or
6-9 (Gamble is only 6-5), and yet use his size and quickness to clear around
them. He's quite versatile, and he was in the top five in FG% for most of the
last two seasons as well as being a solid free throw shooter (85-90%). He is
not an all-star, but is good for 10-15 points a night.
	I will agree that the Celtics made a HUMONGOUS mistake trading Brian
Shaw for Sherman Douglas. Trading Shaw was the right move, but getting Douglas
was wrong. With Bird, McHale and Parish on their way out, and Pinckney and
Kleine not really looking like the next generation of the Big Three, they
should have gone for a frontcourt player instead. But what's done is done.
Although, I wouldn't mind seeing a trade of Douglas for anyone...

					- Brian

Brian "Medford" Cimmet
BCIMMET@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU