Feeding The Pig

Pulling a page out of the Red Sox guide on team unity, the Celtics have a new catch phrase. It's not quite as heroic as "Cowboy Up," and maybe it goes a little overboard on the self-deprecation angle that "Idiots" represented, but it does the job. It also seems to fit the individualistic, one-on-one, And1, attitude of the modern NBA.

"Feeding the pig" means giving it to the hot player till his arm gets tired of jumpshots. In years past, we had two big pigs and the rest were just porkers. Last year, Paul was the only swine and got a little fat on the steady diet of shots. This year, Danny and Doc are hoping that the pigs will take turns feeding from the trough.

The beauty thing is that this motto has a strange way of promoting team unity. The gist of the offensive system Doc is trying to install (and any good system for that matter) is to make people move without the ball and get the ball to open players. When they are encouraged to "feed the pig" they will be encouraged to focus more on who else is hot, rather than if they themselves are hot or not. They'll be more concerned with setting up their teammates than looking for their own shot. Thus promoting teamwork.

Of course the downside could be too many players feeling like they are hot. Players are so confident (read: cocky) that when they hit one shot, they feel like they are on fire. Still, if done right, Gary Payton and the rest of the team should be able to make a good judgment call on who really has the hot hand.

So while I don't particularly want to see any of you at the Fleet emulating the Redskins' Hogettes. We should be able to have some fun with the phrase.