"Whenever I hear that about Patrick [O’Bryant], or this week it’s Billy, or next week it might be J....

"Whenever I hear that about Patrick [O’Bryant], or this week it’s Billy, or next week it might be J.R. [Giddens], I always wonder who they want me to take off the floor," Rivers said. "It’s not anything they’re doing or not doing, but they have to beat out the guy in front of them. You play nine guys, we play 10 as much as I can help during the regular season, but it’s just that simple.

Bill Walker article in the Globe's OT

10 months ago Jeff Clark 11 comments 0 recs |

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A good place to start:

When Tony finally gets healthy (as if that will ever happen), it would be nice if Doc would get a nice warm seat on the bench for him. The team is playing better with Pruitt and even Walker taking his minutes.

All the negativity in this town sucks. It sucks, and it stinks, and it sucks. - Rick Pitino

by Roy_Hobbs on Jan 22, 2009 9:33 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

TA

Last nite the C’s seemed to play Eddie at 2 guard almost extensively with either Pruitt, Rondo or Ray Allen at the point. I almost think that TA will not be here for long unless he drastically improves after his injury is healed. They score better this way. I also think Scals is doing the defensive job that TA is supposed to be doing, but really hasn’t this year.

by TrueGreen on Jan 22, 2009 9:39 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Mark Blount

Why aren’t we giving the Miami coach any grief over not playing Mark Blount last nite?

by TrueGreen on Jan 22, 2009 9:47 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

There’s a bit of lack of perspective when comments like this are made. For one, Doc has been mixing our bench players with starters that much better, so that our bench is playing better could more than probably be a result of that. So Pruitt and Walker may not be the ones taking his minutes…. maybe it’s really Ray and Pierce.

That Pruitt is playing also removes House from playing much the PG position, so is the improvement because House is not controlling the ball more rather than Pruitt playing for Tony? Maybe playing Pruitt and Tony together might form a better combination. I really don’t know. I also think once Tony returns, Doc will kinda default to his old 5-bench-men units so it’ll be quite hard to really judge the situation. I think we might see more of Tony playing as a SF.

Tony has not been great, but he hasn’t been as awful as some make him out to be. I think overall he’s been decent. The thing I haven’t liked about him much this season is that he’s not finishing as good as I want him to. Looking for the contact too much is taking away from his effectiveness out there.

by BudweiserCeltic on Jan 22, 2009 9:49 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I don't really care why the team is playing with Tony...

The replacement of Tony with Pruitt has improved the team’s play. Whatever the reason for that — Eddie playing his natural position more, Doc mixing his starters with the bench more — the fact is, the team is better with Tony out of the rotation. I’d like to see it stay that way. Tony provides nothing, in my opinion, that one of Pruitt, Walker, and Scal can’t cover more than adequately, while also bringing other skills to the table.

Tony stagnates the offense and hasn’t been anything special on defense thus far. It’s time for him to go.

All the negativity in this town sucks. It sucks, and it stinks, and it sucks. - Rick Pitino

by Roy_Hobbs on Jan 22, 2009 9:59 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I’m simply saying that playing “better” can be a bit misleading because the alternative could be true that during this stretch if Tony had been here we could’ve been playing even better than better. That’s all. So suggesting that Scal starts because our first unit seemed to be playing better with him is considered ridiculous around some circles here, but it’s highly acceptable when our bench seems to be playing better without Tony? Similar logic is being used in both cases with completely different conclusions.

He might not be doing anything special in defense so far, but it’s still quite true that he’s one of our better defenders in the bench.

Anyways, I’m not opposed to letting Tony go. One of the major reasons I wanted to resign him was because it added an asset we could use in a trade. I’m also interested in seeing him playing in any of these combinations:
Pruitt-Tony-Walker-(Scal?)
Pruitt-House-Tony-(Scal?)
House-Tony-Walker-(Scal?)

Among others, some with Rondo in there too. Hey, if Tony is in there and our bench starts sucking again (assuming that Doc doesn’t throw some random crap units out there) I’m all for benching him.

by BudweiserCeltic on Jan 22, 2009 10:17 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

trade bait?

I wouldn’t mind seeing Tony be used in a trade to get back someone that can help us on the low post

wings are easier to replace than bigs

though I will say that I still appreciate Tony’s defense

"Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me." Michael Scott

by Jeff Clark on Jan 22, 2009 10:06 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I always thought Tony should be used as trade bait if the correct trade is available. It’s really the main reason that I feel those that think that resigning him was a mistake are completely wrong on that issue.

by BudweiserCeltic on Jan 22, 2009 10:19 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

another solution

I thought that teams could put six players on the court these days . . .

by Thruthelookingglass on Jan 22, 2009 3:07 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

TA Caught in the Middle

It’s not Tony’s fault. Our lack of point guard depth leff us with 2 shooting guards in our 2nd unit. The problem wasn’t with either Eddie or Tony, it was playing them both together. It doesn’t work. Both of them lack the same thing: ball handling and distributing. They are both scorers, although in different ways, that is whats they do. That is why we typically won games they shot well in and lost when they didn’t shoot well. Pruitt brings both of those things, thus alleviating the pressure off of Eddie, and even Tony when he comes back. So TA is a victim of circumstance, he is a good player but the battle for minutes needs to be between him and Eddie. Pruitt has to play, or we need to bring in a veteran who can distribute and handle the ball.

SCOTT

by Vegas Scott on Jan 22, 2009 3:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

The problem with TA is that if you don’t play him consistently, he gets even worse.

With that said, while there’s still time in the regular season, I’d like to see Pruitt and Walker continue to get an opportunity to earn some meaningful playing time. See if one (or both) of these guys can be counted on down the stretch. They’re still young, they’re going to make mistakes – but hell, Tony’s a vet and he still plays too often like a rookie.

It’s really shocking, in a way, thinking back to the very young team of a couple years ago – whodathunk that of all the pups on the ‘06 – ’07 team, the one we’d STILL be talking about as a Celtic would be TA? I’d have though he would have either been part of a trade by now, or I would have bet almost anything that he wasn’t going to be resigned after last season.

by theBird on Jan 22, 2009 6:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs