You know what we haven't had enough of yet this pre-season: Position battles. And I'm not talking "this logjam has been here forever" discussion--I want seemingly random, unnecessarily clever coaching tweaks that get us all buzzing. Like how about this daring duo of moves that, well, almost seem like veiled threats. First, you have Scott Skiles telling the Chicago Tribune that rookie Aaron Gray might start:
"We have to decide, balancing both units, do we want a couple of defensive players in the starting lineup or do we want more offense. Aaron has shown-and I think he will in the regular season-that he can score. Do we want to use that to start a game? It's something we have to think about."That would mean that Gray--a second-rounder--has leapfrogged lotto guys Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas. Which does make a certain amount of sense, since pairing Gray with Ben Wallace at least gives them an outside shot at offense in the post.
Over at The Knicks Fix, word is that Brian Scalabrine might take Kedrick Perkins's starting spot on the Celtics. This is nothing against Perk, just that "Scalabrine's ability to hit the deep ball and pull one big out of the paint opens up room for Garnett to work on the post." Hmmm. Seems like addition by subtraction to me, when Perkins actually adds something to the team.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-23-2007 @ 11:08AM
Cyanide said...
I've seen very little of the Celtics preseason, but the clips I have seen have one recurring theme: Garnett drawing all the attention in the post and passing it off to Perkins for an easy wide-open dunk. You really wanna take that away just so Scalabrine has an outside shot at... hitting an outside shot? And whose gonna defend in the post on the other end? Because we know KG doesn't wanna get banged around in the paint for 30+ minutes a game having to play the 5 on defense.
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10-23-2007 @ 3:08PM
BK said...
Let Aaron Gray be Chicago's Michael Doleac (I don't know what that means, but I think I will understand someday).
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10-23-2007 @ 4:19PM
David said...
Another unsubstantiated posting. Cyanide has it right. Perk is a beast, especially when teamed with Garnett. Nothing has been written in the Boston tabloids in this regard -- and god knows it would be printed in Boston if possible. Perhaps Perk not playing in New York last eve is the cause for this BS. Perk was a DNP because Doc Rivers is assessing other players and possible rotations for the season as well as cuts. Scalabrine is a limited minute role player off the bench, not starter. Potentially a very good role player on this Celts team.
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