4.21.2014

C's Still Looking for a Big Man, Notwithstanding Addition of Travis Knight

http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Basketball/2642/2642-697529Fr.jpg

October 17, 1997

The search for a free agent big man still is in effect for the Celtics. Not via trade, mind you; more realistically, a waiver wire find will be coming to town. That new player could join the team in Green Bay, Wis., where the Celtics play an exhibition against the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow night . . .



Pitino on 7-foot center Travis Knight: "If we can get him to shoot five or six 3-pointers a game, he'll shoot 50 percent from the 3-point line." Asked if he wanted Knight taking that many perimeter shots, Pitino said, "I would like to see it. He just shies away from it. Outside of Dana Barros, if we have a 3-point shooting contest, he comes in second every time on this team." . . . The young man you may see around the Celtics' huddle is Kevin Willard, son of Pitino friend and University of Pittsburgh coach Ralph Willard. In May, Pitino was considering Willard for a scouting/assistant coaching position with the Celtics. Willard elected to stay at Pitt. The younger Willard, Pitino joked, is with the Celtics so Pitino "can screw up his life."

The league's new rules certainly have not hurt the Celtics so far. The most obvious one is the return of the 3-point line to 23 feet 9 inches away from the basket. The team attempted 11 3-pointers in Wednesday's 123-115 loss to the Nets. "Any time you get superior players taking superior shots, that's good," Pitino said. "You get ordinary players taking long-distance shots, I don't like it." Walker said that so far, officials seem to be conscious of the new rule that prevents putting a forearm on a player on certain parts of the court. Pitino is happy to see that the leaping-out-of-bounds timeout has been eliminated. "It drove me nuts," he said. "I'd always ask guys, 'Why are you doing that? Lose a possession. Especially when we're two minutes into the game.' "

The Celtics had double sessions yesterday at Brandeis. Two players receiving praise for their afternoon workouts were Greg Minor and Chauncey Billups. The latter began to look more comfortable against the Nets. At least on offense. No Celtic point man had a great defensive outing against Sam Cassell, who torched the Celtics for 32 points and 15 assists . . . John Calipari explained why the Nets and everyone else (Celtics included) wanted to draft Keith Van Horn. "Before the draft workouts, we all knew he could shoot, jump, and run," Calipari said. "We didn't know he could shoot like crazy, jump as high as he can, and run as fast as he does."

2 comments:

FLCeltsFan said...

Some things never change. Danny's been looking for a big man ever since he traded Perk.

FLCeltsFan said...

Some things never change. Danny's been looking for a big man ever since he traded Perk.