The state of the Irish ...Apart from the fun part, we're playing ball too here in New England, so here's a deeper analysis of the Celtics first three sims:
Surprises
My veterans have been a huge plus with Barry (22ppg/5rpg/6apg on .550 shooting as a primary fokus) leading the way, but it was PG Eisley (13ppg on .528 shooting off the bench) and SG Hoiberg (.545) giving me unexpected assistance as well.
Eddy Curry has been even better than expected and - funny - after he was relieved of offensive focus burdens his numbers jumped (from 17 to 19ppg, from 8 to 11rpg, from 1.7 to 2.2 swats) to new career highs. Only his D is not up to the offense (unless the opponent is some Yao guy
). He'll share the C spot with Jefferson who seems better suited for the 5 than the PF.
Young PF Strong impressed big time averaging 10/10 with 1.8 blocks after starting the season deep on the bench, as did PG backup West, who can fill it up in limited time.
Disappointments
Well, the Darko files have not been solved yet, there's still a huge disparity between expectations and performance. Hee was horrible as a starter and average as a backup, still trying to get accustomed to actually playing ball (thanks, Larry, for completely and convincingly destroying his confidence)
Jury's still out ...
Bailey Snow, while showing some talent, is no Mason Mercer yet (but has there every been a great rookie PG in this league). His 10ppg and 7apg are relativated by a high A/T rating of 2:1 and subpar shooting of less than 40%.
And finally Mickael Pietrus did show that he can't live up to expectations as well. A mere 7ppg on .400 shooting (as a focus no less) won't cut it in this game. He seems best suited for the backup spot where he can grow into starter standards.
Outlook
The experimental phase is not over yet as neither the final roster nor the best suited system have been discovered yet. Wins and losses don't worry me too much right now as our final push for respectability is still two weeks (real time) or so away.
There are issues on SG and SF I'd like to settle and if it means giving up veterans to get promising kids on the pine, so may it then be.
We've lost our share of close ones (5 games by 5pt or less) and avoided blowouts so far (just 5 losses by more than 10 points) - that without killing the game by walking up the ball, which I'm proud of, too.
So let's get a couple more W's along the way and see if we can sneak into the postseason
with a late season push ...