"NEW LOOK" SCALABRINE WEARS WARMUPS AND LOOKS BORED ON SIDELINES
The Boston Herald's Celtics coverage is usually solid, but Mark Murphy today went a little overboard. With a picture above of Scals apparently mining his hair for dandruff to eat whilst wearing his Celtics warmups, Murphy talks about Scalabrine's "active role" thus far this season:
Though in most eyes Scalabrine is more of a perimeter-shooting power forward than anyone’s idea of a so-called “3” that is indeed the spot where Rivers likes to play him.
And when Pierce fell into quick foul trouble during Saturday’s overtime win in Milwaukee, Scalabrine was sent out to cover his old New Jersey teammate, Richard Jefferson.
The result was season highs in everything from scoring (five points) to minutes (13). Scalabrine even buried his first 3-pointer of the season on his way to being part of the solution in perhaps the most difficult win of the early season.
“Scal was phenomenal,” said Rivers, who gave the team a much-needed day off yesterday. “He gave us great minutes. He’s an irritant when he guards people out there. He just plays terrific team basketball.”
He was also on the floor during overtime - perhaps the best measure of how well he fit in.
“I haven’t been in a situation like that in a while,” he said. “But the key was keeping my composure. I just try to be solid.”
My only explanation for this article is that everyone involved is in on a joke that I clearly don't understand. I know Doc loves hyperbole more than he loves wearing ugly suits but come on- if Scals played terrific team basketball he would have more than season highs of 13 minutes and 5 points. Scalabrine just isn't a good enough player to have a regular spot in the Celtics rotation the way Doc uses him.
But does that mean that Scals can't serve a useful purpose to this team other than provide them with a poison tester for the Big Three? Of course! Scals can do one thing better than most people in the league, and that is annoy the living hell out of people. Doc calls him an "irritant." That's word that needs about seventy adjectives and adverbs in front of it, marking a rare moment where Doc missed a chance to hyperbolize. Scals doesn't just irritate opposing players, he irritates people watching the game sitting on their couches. For quite some time now I have advocated Scals as the team's designated irritating enforcer but no one appears to be listening. Many great teams had this player (Rambis, Rodman, ML Carr, Dwayne Schintzius), and it is an area where the Celtics could definitely improve this season, considering Bill Walker doesn't appear ready to take that role.
Here's how Scals should be used: 5-8 minutes per, setting quasi-legal screens for Ray Allen, popping out for corner threes and screaming "BUCKETS!" as soon as he releases the ball, crashing the offensive glass even on made free throws, running into people that aren't looking, boxing out, shouting "Defense!" and "Outlet!", yelling whilst jumping up and down guarding the inbounder, protecting the rim with mostly flagrant fouls, diving after loose balls and/or humping the other team's most volatile personality. Unfortunately, the Celtics use him as if he's just another subaverage 3/4 with a little range on his set shot. He has much more potential than that. He's not going to gain 40 inches on his vertical. At least, I don't think he will, and if he does, that's bonus. While we wait, the C's need play up his reckless enforcer role.
I suggest that he shows up on the sidelines halfway through the first quarter wearing a Holiday Inn bathrobe and sunglasses looking hung over with a two-day growth. When he checks into the game, he puts his cigarette out on an ashtray on the scorer's table. Then he enters the game pointing at and staring at the man he is going to guard mumbling something disturbing. Then, let the Scalabrine Effect (described above) take over.Source URL: http://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2008/11/brian-scalabrine-jumps-on-new-role.html
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