I'm still preaching patience, but as they say, you never get a second chance for a first impression. So far, here are some quick hit impressions that I have of this season's team:
1. rebounding will be an issue - until the young bigs can remember their defensive assignments and earn some time, all the pressure to board is going to fall to Blount and Pierce. That's not a good thing. (then again, perhaps Waif Lafrentz will step up and push some people around,... nah)
2. streaking will be the norm - (no, not streaking like Will Ferrell in Old School) I'm talking about game to game and minute to minute runs of hot and cold. This team will be brillant for a stretch, boneheaded for another, and all around maddeningly inconsistent.
3. there is such a thing as a true point guard - and Gary is going to be putting on a clinic. This is, in a way, a bad thing. I'm going to be watching a true point guard, night in and night out, and I'm never going to settle for anything less again. Never again will I be walking down the hall saying to myself, "Shammond Williams can handle the point, we just need a shooter in that spot." It's just not going to come up ever again.
4. Doc will roll with a deep rotation - for better or worse. His starters had some foul trouble, so he didn't hesitate to bring in the kids. 11 players got time in the first game. The names will change somewhat (insert West for Banks for example), but the rotation will be at least 2 deeper than the Coach that just beat us always wanted. It will be painful at first, but I'm hoping it will translate to valuable experience down the line.
5. when it comes to link overload, I'm not going to list every single one for you anymore - not because I don't care, but because I'm not a big fan of duplication of effort. Check out Boston Sports Media Watch. Bruce does a fine job of finding all the good news articles and linking them for you. That doesn't mean I'm changing anything, I'll still list relevant links and comment on them. I just wanted you to be aware of that site.