Billy Walker

[Neurotic Guy]

Just a quick response to the Doc - KC comparison.  First, a short disclaimer: below are my perceptions and therefore may be completely off-base as I have never witnessed a Celtics practice and have never been privy to inside knowledge of coach-player relations.

I was about 25 years old when KC Jones came to the Celtics so I remember his tenure here quite well.  KC walked into a championship  team -- not just a contender -- an actual championship team with strong, driven player leadership and a team coming off of a coach that had some interpersonal challenges and a heavy hand (hearsay)(Fitch).  KC was low key, stoic, easy to get along with -- a player's coach who was well regarded and who needed to help this team 'stay the course'. This was a team that needed a 'manager' more than a coach.

Doc went through a number of roster iterations as Danny tinkered -- eventually landing a team that had never played together but was a talented mix of veterans and youngsters.  This was a team that needed a coach.

In a manner that I would NOT describe as low key, Doc has not only managed the diverse personalities and potential ego issues that invariably arise when dealing with 3 guys who have been top dogs, but he has taught his players -- especially his young point guard.  He also has led a highly skilled group of assistant coaches and trainers -- undoubtedly managing a hard head or 2 on that front.  I think KC may have had 1 or 2 assistant coaches.

Bottom line:
KC - a good manager of a ready-made and self(Bird)-motivated championship team

Doc - a great manager of people AND a solid coach of a talented group of players and leaders who he helped mold into a championship team.

Doc is not KC-redux

[xmuscularghandix]

Why does Danny even need to get involved, Doc couldn't have solved this problem over the course of February and given one of the rookies a chance? Danny shouldn't have to be worried about doing this since he's got enough financial junk to worry about on his end, next time Doc should use his head so he doesn't have this problem again.

i dont think he's jumping out to enforce things against Doc, i just think he's stating how the organization feels. despite what many of us may think... DOC DOESN'T CARE WHAT WE SAY. And further more i'd say Walker playing would have more to do with Doc's own observations, or PP's mentioning of it.

[gar]

Doc only committed to playing them spot minutes (4 min. or so) to spell Pierce. He did not commit to the kind of minutes I think many of us feel he needs. I say needs, because I don't think he has earned major minutes yet. Lets just hope he can convince Doc that he deserves to be out there; because we need someone to step up and help with larger SG's and SF's.

[xmuscularghandix]

Doc only committed to playing them spot minutes (4 min. or so) to spell Pierce. He did not commit to the kind of minutes I think many of us feel he needs. I say needs, because I don't think he has earned major minutes yet. Lets just hope he can convince Doc that he deserves to be out there; because we need someone to step up and help with larger SG's and SF's.

if pierce plays 38 or less minutes i'll be happy, maybe they'll blow em out and can rest the fourth quarter (that'd also help Marbury as well)

[ManUp]

I would love to see Bill play.

I hope Danny is right about him playing.

I'm still not holding my breathe.

[ManUp]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

In part. Two minutes in the first half were relatively worthless, he should've left him out there longer. Same with the 4th quarter, that 2nd unit together were getting some rhythm and keeping the lead. He could've kept the starters on the bench 1 or 2 minute longer and see how the team responded.

If Doc judged a bit of a momentum change, then insert the starters to close out the game. That would've been my plan, not going to complain much about it... but I think there was more opportunity to keep Walker there gaining experience than what was given.

[Fafnir]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

He was invisible for the most part. We'll see if he can do anything other than serve as a chair while Pierce/Allen sit.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

He was invisible for the most part.

That's the main reason to give him extended runs.

[Fafnir]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

In part. Two minutes in the first half were relatively worthless, he should've left him out there longer. Same with the 4th quarter, that 2nd unit together were getting some rhythm and keeping the lead. He could've kept the starters on the bench 1 or 2 minute longer and see how the team responded.

I'm not sure why Doc would leave Walker in there longer than required to rest the starters. He wasn't doing anything to justify increased play time. We're a championship team, you don't just force feed rookies minutes beyond what is necessary due to our injury situation.

Especially when we're trying to incorporate Marbury and to a lesser extent Mikki Moore.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

In part. Two minutes in the first half were relatively worthless, he should've left him out there longer. Same with the 4th quarter, that 2nd unit together were getting some rhythm and keeping the lead. He could've kept the starters on the bench 1 or 2 minute longer and see how the team responded.

I'm not sure why Doc would leave Walker in there longer than required to rest the starters. He wasn't doing anything to justify increased play time. We're a championship team, you don't just force feed rookies minutes beyond what is necessary due to our injury situation.

Especially when we're trying to incorporate Marbury and to a lesser extent Mikki Moore.

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with force feeding rookies playing time. I disagree with the notion that you can't give your youngsters playing time, experience, while still winning games and building a championship team.

Interesting that as soon as the starters came on, we lost the lead.

[Fafnir]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

In part. Two minutes in the first half were relatively worthless, he should've left him out there longer. Same with the 4th quarter, that 2nd unit together were getting some rhythm and keeping the lead. He could've kept the starters on the bench 1 or 2 minute longer and see how the team responded.

I'm not sure why Doc would leave Walker in there longer than required to rest the starters. He wasn't doing anything to justify increased play time. We're a championship team, you don't just force feed rookies minutes beyond what is necessary due to our injury situation.

Especially when we're trying to incorporate Marbury and to a lesser extent Mikki Moore.

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with force feeding rookies playing time. I disagree with the notion that you can't give your youngsters playing time, experience, while still winning games and building a championship team.

Interesting that as soon as the starters came on, we lost the lead.

Do you really think force feeding Bill Walker minutes at this point in the season will get him ready to contribute for the playoffs?

Also the starters lost the lead, it happens. But largely it was due to NJ hitting their open threes. Both the bench and the starters were letting them bomb away from deep.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Glad to see Doc kept his word this time around. I was pretty shocked that he played Walker in both halves. Walker had a relatively mistake free outing. Nothing terrible, and nothing special 2 points, 2 rebs, 1 assist, and 1 foul.

I hope Bill keeps getting minutes, and that he manages to do something with them.

In part. Two minutes in the first half were relatively worthless, he should've left him out there longer. Same with the 4th quarter, that 2nd unit together were getting some rhythm and keeping the lead. He could've kept the starters on the bench 1 or 2 minute longer and see how the team responded.

I'm not sure why Doc would leave Walker in there longer than required to rest the starters. He wasn't doing anything to justify increased play time. We're a championship team, you don't just force feed rookies minutes beyond what is necessary due to our injury situation.

Especially when we're trying to incorporate Marbury and to a lesser extent Mikki Moore.

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with force feeding rookies playing time. I disagree with the notion that you can't give your youngsters playing time, experience, while still winning games and building a championship team.

Interesting that as soon as the starters came on, we lost the lead.

Do you really think force feeding Bill Walker minutes at this point in the season will get him ready to contribute for the playoffs?

Also the starters lost the lead, it happens. But largely it was due to NJ hitting their open threes. Both the bench and the starters were letting them bomb away from deep.

I know it happens, which is precisely why the whole notion of the idea that giving minutes to the youngsters will cost us games is flawed.

It'll be hard to get Walker ready for the playoffs, but certainly do-able. They could've started the process a couple of months ago easily.

Anyways, I thought there was a wider window to keep Walker in there both gaining experience, and also because I thought that when he was removed his unit was starting to get into a good rhythm. If you can sneak a couple of extra minutes of rest for a player that had come in the open and said he needed some, then you do it. The opportunity was there, it's all I'm saying and I would've taken it. For better, they keep the lead and Pierce gets a ton of rest... at worst you give extra minutes of rest to Pierce and insert him back on as soon as Doc notices a shift of momentum (which happened anyways).

[ManUp]

I have no problem with Walker being invisible out there. He bought Pierce some time to rest, played within the offense, and didn't get hurt the team defensively. In short he did nothing to hurt the team, and we maintained a 10 point lead with our second unit out there. It was the starters who lost the lead, and that was just the nets chucking some 3s. If anything Eddie had one dumb turnover because he wanted to get Walker the ball on a fast break.

[jpd985]

Since the 2nd was playing well and maintaining the lead I have no problem leaving them out there for another minute or 2. However, as soon as the momentum starts to shift put the starters back in.