Pruitt needs more minutes

Celtsfan1980 · Post #1 » by **Celtsfan1980** » Tue Dec 9, 2008 4:45 pm

Pruitt may not be the next Gilbert Arenas or the next Devin Harris(as nbadraft.net compares him to), but there certainly is potential. The Portland game angered me. You have a 23-point lead heading into the fourth. Pruitt should have gotten most of the minutes at the 1, but he didn't. House was shooting much better in the pre-season with Pruitt getting a lot of minutes at the 1 and has been in a slump for much of the regular season since he's been playing out of position. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but it may be a good indicator of the way House should be used. I would also give Pruitt some important minutes at the 1 when Rondo has lacked the aggressiveness, and that has happened in a lot of road games. If he doesn't get a lot of playing time this season, he should definitely get 5-10 mpg next season because there's little chance he'd stay if they're not playing him. It may turn out to be the worst decision Doc has ever made. Does anyone agree?

BillessuR6 · Post #2 » by **BillessuR6** » Tue Dec 9, 2008 5:14 pm

I liked Pruitt, House, Tony trio in the preseason. I thought they had a very nice chemistry. Hopefully we can see this combination in regular season also...

KyleCleric · Post #3 » by **KyleCleric** » Tue Dec 9, 2008 5:45 pm

agreed. i expect though that Doc had been planning to use Pruitt more the last week couldn't because of his sickness. we'll see if he does start to get more minutes soon.

OBisHalJordan · Post #4 » by **OBisHalJordan** » Tue Dec 9, 2008 8:47 pm

thebirdman wrote:I liked Pruitt, House, Tony trio in the preseason. I thought they had a very nice chemistry. Hopefully we can see this combination in regular season also...

i too would like to see a little bit more of this

SLCceltic · Post #5 » by **SLCceltic** » Tue Dec 9, 2008 8:55 pm

Any minutes given to Pruitt will have to come from Tony, Eddie, and to some extent Rondo

We have plenty w/o Pruitt; hes just unluckily the odd man out

SLCceltic · Post #6 » by **SLCceltic** » Tue Dec 9, 2008 9:07 pm

........and besides, Cassell is gonna need to hobble his old ass out there for 5-10 a game to get ready for
Pruitt is a nice player, but there just isnt anything---------Id carve out time for JR/BW ahead of Pruitt
Our chemestry is nice as is , maybe Pruitt can step in for an injury..........Id totally trust him

Post #7 » by **sully00** » Tue Dec 9, 2008 9:07 pm

I like Pruitt as a player and really hope to seem him be the back up pg this team is missing. That said I don't really care about developing him as a player. Even the mins in 23 point blowouts are for the guys in the rotation. POB gets garbage time because he is 7 ' tall and nobody else is but if Pruitt isn't in the plans come April then I could care less if he plays. My guess Doc is more focused on whether or not he needs to break the glass on Sam Cassell in the second half or if Eddie and Tony can do the job.

I hope he plays more and he plays well but I just don't know how much he is going to impact whether or not this team wins a title this year and frankly that is all I care about right now.

GreenGrizz · Post #8 » by **GreenGrizz** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:30 am

Play him in the second quarter for a few minutes. It is a good way to boost his confidence. The final quarter is too late for him to get ready in the game.

Rocky5000 · Post #9 » by **Rocky5000** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:17 am

I think Pruitt is pushing for Scal's minutes. Against Portland he was subbed for Scal at one point and we went with Pruitt, House, Tony, Powe, and O'Bryant. A small lineup but I think it can be quite disruptive defensively, and Pruitt is big enough to cover 2s. However, the big problem with our team isn't backup pg, or even backup sf, it's backup center...

I wish O'Bryant would put some lbs on and show a little more toughness so he could get into the rotation. If we could somehow combine Big Baby's weight and defensive play with O'Bryants height, length, and shooting touch, we'd have a damn good player. As bad as O'Bryant might be, Big Baby really hasn't shown that he deserves to see minutes. He's shooting 33.3% overall and in the last 4 games is 1-11(0-6 last 3).

Joselo16 · Post #10 » by **Joselo16** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:31 am

I don't know if its just me but Doc has always been horrible at player development. I mean he never gives or gave our promising players any playing time until injuries (or trades) forced him to play them. Rondo only played because Sebastian and Dickau both were hurt (and Sebastian was awful anyways) and that was like halfway though the 06-07 season, Gomes played (and played great for the final stretch of 05-06) because everyone in front of him was hurt, before that he was stuck on the bench, Jefferson was always on the bench a long with Perk behind Lafrentz and Blount. We were a horrible team and yet he kept these guys on the bench because supposable the guys in front of them gave us a better chance of winning I know we were showcasing Blount, but he then played Kandi-man after the trade. Heaven forbid injuries happen now but that will be the only way Pruitt will probably play any meaningful minutes!

cloverleaf · Post #11 » by **cloverleaf** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 12:39 pm

Doc may be slow to play young players, but I think you've got to give him some credit for Jefferson and Perk developing nicely from high school players. The issue, if there is one, seems to be with point guards particularly--which does present a challenge to Pruitt.

s1ickd · Post #12 » by **s1ickd** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 4:52 pm

Pruitt absolutely needs more minutes. I still maintain that he does everything that Eddie House does, and more, and does it better. He's also more athletic. I think Doc is just scared of mixing it up.

Pruitt showed that when you gave him minutes, he improved every minute he played and was also confident both down the stretch and playing with starters. I never see him flustered or hesitent, ever. I think he's what we all wanted DWest to be.

Kefa461 · Post #13 » by **Kefa461** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:08 pm

Playing time is earned and obviously for whatever reason he has not earned the floor time. What reason would the coaching staff hold the guy back if he has not earned the time ? It is something he lacks that we as posters are not privy to. 8-)

Post #14 » by **ParticleMan** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 5:17 pm

we're trying to win a championship. we should put guys out there who can win games. if pruitt shows the ability, great. so far, i haven't seen that much out of gabe. house is WAY better, offensively he's a better shooter and runs the offense better, and defensively he's more of a pest and is a veteran who knows how to play D. pruitt is a lot better than last year, so it's not like he's not developing. he'll get minutes when he earns minutes.

Joselo16 · Post #15 » by **Joselo16** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:47 pm

I understand that we are trying to win a championship but it is also the regular season and our bench is has also been struggling. Also Tommy and Donnie have both said that Eddie (and TA) is playing out of position which correlates with his play so why wouldn't we want to give our young PG some time early in the season to see if he is ready to produce? That would move Eddie to SG which he thrives at and Tony to SF. If we are not going to play him why not just send him to the D-league to at least gain confidence and develop and gain chemistry with our rooks?

Also I don't know if I can give Doc credit for Big Al's development (I'm not Doc Bashing) because he produced the same way he did his rookie season in his third season just that he wasn't hurt like in his second season (which no one on the staff believed until he was checked out) and got more playing time. Also if I remember correctly he started producing along with Perk when people started questioning if both bigs could play at the same time due to spacing (mostly Doc after every press conference) even after they produced great games against the likes of KG and Duncan.

Give Pruitt some court time in the second quarters of games like Tommy Gun has said to boost his confidence I mean he can only help our bench and how hard is it to feed Powe the ball in the post???

JR Hawks · Post #16 » by **JR Hawks** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:17 pm

Some folks are still stuck in 2006.

We are no longer about developing babies. We are about winning championships.

If Gabe isn't good enough to earn minutes, then he should stay on the bench. And if he stays on the bench much longer, it will probably be time to trade him for someone that is more likely to crack the rotation.

s1ickd · Post #17 » by **s1ickd** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:50 am

Though House is a great fit here, I think he's highly overrated as an individual talent.

He has an excellent shot and plays with high energy.

However, his version of "setting up the offense" is giving the ball to Pierce and waiting for the ball to be kicked out to him. He doesn't penetrate, finish, and is not a threat off the dribble. He also does not draw defenders to him to find open guys.

On defense, he's ok with point gaurds of average speed. He gets exponentially more exposed with faster gaurds. Right now he has the luxury of the best rotating team defense in the league.

Im not a hater, just getting real here.

Joselo16 · Post #18 » by **Joselo16** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 1:47 am

Yes minutes should be earned but who besides Powe and TA is really playing well off the bench? The C's are definitely about winning banners but in my opinion as I stated we would have a better chance with a backup PG or at least a guy who was being groomed by the team to be the back up guard, instead of playing House and Allen out of position. Yes we are 20-2 but we are going to need a legit bench If we plan on winning 18. Pruitt showed he can play albeit pre-season but its not like he would be going up against starters. Our bench is an issue and Tommy Heinsohn who knows a thing or two about the game of basketball has mentioned many times the same dilemma, and has also said that Pruitt would be the solution if he can contribute, why not find out if he can now instead of waiting?