Rick Pitino: The Gift That Keeps Giving

[Roy H.]

Pitino's coaching style wasn't meant for the pro game, but I think he improved a bit over time.  And, I always appreciate how much hustle he had Paul Pierce playing with as a rookie.

The real problem with Pitino was the personnel moves.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/executives/pitinri99x.html

I'm going to cut and past for those who don't want to click through:

June 25, 1997: Selected Chauncey Billups (1st round, 3rd pick), Ron Mercer (1st round, 6th pick) and Ben Pepper (2nd round, 55th pick) in the 1997 NBA Draft.

July 7, 1997: Signed Travis Knight as a free agent.

July 28, 1997: Signed Bruce Bowen as a free agent.

July 28, 1997: Signed Andrew DeClercq as a free agent.

July 28, 1997: Signed Tony Massenburg as a free agent.

August 21, 1997: Traded Eric Williams to the Denver Nuggets for a 1999 2nd round draft pick (Kris Clack was later selected) and a 2001 2nd round draft pick (Earl Watson was later selected).

August 22, 1997: Signed Chris Mills as a free agent.

August 22, 1997: Signed Tyus Edney as a free agent.

October 22, 1997: Traded Chris Mills, a 1998 2nd round draft pick (DeMarco Johnson was later selected) and a 2000 2nd round draft pick (Lavor Postell was later selected) to the New York Knicks for Scott Brooks, Dontae' Jones, Walter McCarty and John Thomas.

October 28, 1997: Traded Tony Massenburg and a 1999 2nd round draft pick (Obinna Ekezie was later selected) to the Vancouver Grizzlies for Roy Rogers.

February 18, 1998: Traded Chauncey Billups, Dee Brown, Roy Rogers and John Thomas to the Toronto Raptors for Kenny Anderson, Popeye Jones and Žan Tabak.

March 25, 1998: Signed Reggie Hanson to the first of two 10-day contracts.

April 14, 1998: Signed Reggie Hanson to a contract for the rest of the season.

June 24, 1998: Selected Paul Pierce (1st round, 10th pick) in the 1998 NBA Draft.

January 21, 1999: Traded Travis Knight to the Los Angeles Lakers for Tony Battie.

January 21, 1999: Signed Dwayne Schintzius as a free agent.

January 27, 1999: Signed Eric Riley as a free agent.

February 12, 1999: Signed Marlon Garnett as a free agent.

March 11, 1999: Traded Andrew DeClercq and a 1999 1st round draft pick (Andre Miller was later selected) to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Vitaly Potapenko.

April 14, 1999: Signed Damon Jones to the first of two 10-day contracts.

May 4, 1999: Signed Damon Jones to a contract for the rest of the season.

June 30, 1999: Selected Kris Clack (2nd round, 55th pick) in the 1999 NBA Draft.

August 1, 1999: Signed Adrian Griffin as a free agent.

August 3, 1999: Signed Wayne Turner as a free agent.

August 3, 1999: Traded Popeye Jones, Ron Mercer and Dwayne Schintzius to the Denver Nuggets for Danny Fortson, Eric Washington, Eric Williams and a 2001 1st round draft pick (Kedrick Brown was later selected).

August 5, 1999: Signed Calbert Cheaney as a free agent.

October 21, 1999: Signed Marty Conlon as a free agent.

November 8, 1999: Signed Doug Overton as a free agent.

December 13, 1999: Signed Jamel Thomas as a free agent.

June 28, 2000: Selected Jérôme Moïso (1st round, 11th pick) in the 2000 NBA Draft.

June 28, 2000: Traded a 2001 2nd round draft pick (Earl Watson was later selected) and a 2001 2nd round draft pick (Michael Wright was later selected) to the Seattle SuperSonics for Josip Sesar.

August 1, 2000: Signed Mark Blount as a free agent.

August 3, 2000: Signed Randy Brown as a free agent.

August 16, 2000: As part of a 4-team trade, the Boston Celtics traded Danny Fortson to the Golden State Warriors; the Boston Celtics traded Dana Barros to the Dallas Mavericks; the Dallas Mavericks traded Robert Pack, Hot Rod Williams and cash to the Boston Celtics; the Dallas Mavericks traded Bruno Šundov to the Utah Jazz; the Golden State Warriors traded Bill Curley to the Dallas Mavericks; the Golden State Warriors traded Donyell Marshall to the Utah Jazz; the Utah Jazz traded a 2001 1st round draft pick (Joseph Forte was later selected) to the Boston Celtics; the Utah Jazz traded Howard Eisley to the Dallas Mavericks; and the Utah Jazz traded Adam Keefe to the Golden State Warriors.

August 21, 2000: Signed Chris Carr as a free agent.

October 16, 2000: Traded Calbert Cheaney and Robert Pack to the Denver Nuggets for Chris Herren and Bryant Stith.

November 6, 2000: Signed Rick Brunson as a free agent.

December 6, 2000: Signed Milt Palacio as a free agent.

There were a couple of okay moves in there, but trading Chauncey and giving up a pick that could have been Andre Miller or Shaun Marion for Potapenko were just unforgiveable.

The one potentially excellent move he made (outside of drafting Pierce, which seemed obvious) was trading Mercer for Eric Williams, Danny Fortson and a #1.  That #1 was special, because not only did it not have protections, but it had a "roll over" provision good for two drafts.

As we all know, we took Kedrick Brown with that pick.  We had three picks that year, and the #11 could have been used on Richard Jefferson, Troy Murphy (heavily rumored), Zach Randolph, etc.  (That draft was compounded by taking Joe Forte over Tony Parker, also heavily rumored).

But the real tragedy?  With three picks in the draft, we should have rolled over the #11.  Denver was terrible the next two years; we could have had the #5 pick in 2002 or the #3 pick in 2003.  All of that is on Chris Wallace, though, rather than Pitino.

The patient, future-oriented Celtics:

Antoine
Marion
Carmelo
Pierce / Joe Johnson
Tony Parker / Chauncey Billups

In fairness, we probably don't roll over the draft pick twice.  So, let's scrap Carmelo, and take Amare in 2002.

Amare
Antoine / Marion
Pierce
Johnson
Parker / Chauncey

All we would have need is Mike D'Antoni!

[Who]

Kenny Anderson was such a disappointment here in Boston. I mean he was solid but he was a 17-18ppg 7-8apg PG before he arrived here. He just had one of his best seasons as a pro the year before in 1996-97 in Portland. A strong year in Charlotte the year before that. Some All-Star years in New Jersey as a 18-9 guy.

It would have been much easier to forgive that Chauncey trade if that Kenny Anderson showed up in Boston. Instead we just got a solid role player.

[bdm860]

Meh.  We’re all jaded by our current viewpoint of Rick Pitino which is something along the lines of an arrogant buffoon.  If you considered the time period and context of how most people viewed Pitino at that time, coming out of Kentucky, then TMac is the one that comes off looking bad here

You may be forgetting the realities from the Paul Gaston/Rick Pitino years.

Pitino came in and stripped Red Auerbach of his title as Celtics president, that’s how he started. Can you imagine how that egomaniac treated his players at Kentucky?

Here’s a quote from Chauncey Billups:

Every time I’d take two dribbles, he’d be screaming, and I’d have to look up to see where we were going

Here’s a quote from Antoine Walker talking about his time under Pitino:

Coach wanted guys who could play his style, but that style didn’t translate to the pro game. You can’t press for 48 minutes in the NBA. The season’s too long.

Here’s Dino Radja talking about his experience with Pitino:

I went to Pitino and asked him if I fit into his plans. With a new coach, I obviously wanted to know what he thought of my game. I loved playing for Boston and just wanted to find out if there was any possibility I might be traded, because I had heard some rumours. Pitino looked me right in the eyes and said, "Dino, don't worry. You're going to be a big part of our offense. When we run a set play, the ball is going to go through you.” I left the meeting feeling great. Five days later, I found out I was being traded to Philadelphia. The worst organization there was back then.

Without the complete context, McGrady sounds lazy from the OP video. But with hindsight, he might have actually saved his career given how his body broke down so easily & how hard Pitino pushed his players.

There's definitely a monkey's paw darker timeline out there, where the C's actually win the Duncan lottery (and grab McGrady too), and they both gladly leave for Orlando as free agents in '00 to get away from Pitino.  And no Pierce either, because Duncan either made the team too competitive and picked too late and/or Pitino traded the pick for a veteran to make a playoff push.

As much as we dream about it, I don't think there's anyway Duncan actually works out in Boston with Pitino here.  Unless maybe it leads to the team drafting LeBron.

[green_bballers13]

Meh.  We’re all jaded by our current viewpoint of Rick Pitino which is something along the lines of an arrogant buffoon.  If you considered the time period and context of how most people viewed Pitino at that time, coming out of Kentucky, then TMac is the one that comes off looking bad here

You may be forgetting the realities from the Paul Gaston/Rick Pitino years.

Pitino came in and stripped Red Auerbach of his title as Celtics president, that’s how he started. Can you imagine how that egomaniac treated his players at Kentucky?

Here’s a quote from Chauncey Billups:

Every time I’d take two dribbles, he’d be screaming, and I’d have to look up to see where we were going

Here’s a quote from Antoine Walker talking about his time under Pitino:

Coach wanted guys who could play his style, but that style didn’t translate to the pro game. You can’t press for 48 minutes in the NBA. The season’s too long.

Here’s Dino Radja talking about his experience with Pitino:

I went to Pitino and asked him if I fit into his plans. With a new coach, I obviously wanted to know what he thought of my game. I loved playing for Boston and just wanted to find out if there was any possibility I might be traded, because I had heard some rumours. Pitino looked me right in the eyes and said, "Dino, don't worry. You're going to be a big part of our offense. When we run a set play, the ball is going to go through you.” I left the meeting feeling great. Five days later, I found out I was being traded to Philadelphia. The worst organization there was back then.

Without the complete context, McGrady sounds lazy from the OP video. But with hindsight, he might have actually saved his career given how his body broke down so easily & how hard Pitino pushed his players.

You completely ignored the first part of my post.  Tracy Mcgrady was drafted the same year as Pitinos first year coaching the Celtics.  So everything that happened afterwards, as far as the context of this video goes, is irrelevant.  Trust me, no one is trying to shine a positive light on Ricks time coaching here.  It was a disaster.

The proper context though, is that Mcgrady said in the video he decided to didn’t want to play for Pitino when he was coaching Kentucky and then carried that decision over to the draft.  Pitino was one of the most successful college basketball coaches in the nation, he won a national title, was a runner up the following year and had a slew of players from his program going pro.  There’s a reason the Celtics bent over backwards to get him here.

So at that time, Mcgrady was essentially saying he didn’t want to play for one of the most successful programs in the country at both winning at the college level and getting players to the NBA, because he demanded too much work out of his players.

Again, no one’s saying Mcgrady didn’t dodge a bullet by not wanting to come to Boston, but this isn’t a good look for him either, and it’s also probably a microcosm for his whole pro career and not having any post season success.

You should listen to the podcast on Ryen Russilo's platform. He shied away from admitting that his agent/brain trust told him that he shouldn't go to Boston, but he finally admits it. The advice that he got is that he should go to a professionally run organization. Pitino did have a solid college reputation, but had not proven much of anything in the pros. At that time, Pitino was not a top echelon NBA coach, and should not have been treated as such.

“I just remember in college, I was being recruited by Kentucky and I knew how hard and how tough Rick Pitino was,” explained McGrady. “Rick Pitino had left and become Boston coach and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to play for Rick Pitino.’”

TMac isn't saying that he wasn't up for a challenge. He was politely saying that Pitino was too much of an ****. Gilbert Arenas had this problem with Stan Van Gundy and Latrell Sprewell had it with PJ Carlesimo. Bobby Knight abused his players and won in college. I'm not sure it would have worked in the pros.

Also: TMac explains his career. He grew up in Central Florida and was psyched to come home to play with Grant Hill. Hill couldn't stay healthy. He then decided to go to Houston because Orlando was rebuilding around a high schooler named Dwight Howard. TMac wanted to win, so he left to go play with Yao Ming, another oft-injured player. The three guys that he hitched his wagon to were: Vince Carter, Grant Hill, and Yao. I don't think those guys won much either.