Starting Five - 12/29

Being a fan is such a passive thing. You sit and watch, but your analysis isn’t needed, nor enters into any decisions. Is this player not getting enough minutes? should that one be traded? should this other guy be resigned? Give it all the consideration you want, but it’s of no consequence. Your input isn’t needed, except infinitesimally, for tickets and television ratings.

One of the articles Jeff’s listed above got me to thinking about this, where Doc’s commenting on O’Bryant, and possibly Pruitt. He says O’Bryant isn’t ready yet, and needs to improve first in practice. He’s improving sure, but needs to improve more. And until he does, he won’t be getting any game time. Which sounds all very sensible.

But then you see Doc speaking of his concern over the Celtics’ lack of length, and there sits O’Bryant and Pruitt.

Then you contemplate how limited practice time is during the season, especially for the extra center and the extra point guard. They’re just not going to get enough practice time to overturn a coach’s earlier assessment. And the only game time they’ll see is garbage minutes with an uncoordinated mix and match squad of guys. Even if a particular player does well, it’s of no consequence, since it was only garbage time. Unless a trade or injuries changes the calculation, everything stays the same.

The coach may be totally right in his assessment, but as a fan, it’s always frustrating to wonder if he might be wrong. And you’ve no way to find out. All you can do is hope the guy gets a chance somewhere else someday. Just to see if he actually did have something to develop. But of course, a lot of good that does your team.

Read the Ray piece. Interesting that he’s playing similar minutes this year to last. 35.6 vs. 35.9, getting less attempts per game at 12.8 vs. 13.5, but averaging more points, 18.2 vs. 17.4. This shows that it’s not the attempts, but the quality of the attempts, and how much more he’s playing in his comfort zone this year. His 3-point attempts are down by .3 from last year (can we find “attempts in the paint” for players somewhere?). It seems like he’s incorporating the fake 3-point attempt then dribble-drive a lot more though, which just opens things up for everyone. I think the quote from Doc – “He’s figured it out” is especially apt.

By the way, I didn’t know he was that lethal going to the hoop before this year, which shows how little he did it prior to the finals last year.