It's an age-old question

Celtics must determine how best to use their young players

By Shira Springer, Globe Staff, 10/1/2003

WALTHAM -- NBA coaches and executives always have faced the question of how best to use rookies and young players. And they always will. When it comes to allotting playing time between young players and seasoned veterans, teams face a constant cost-benefit analysis. Development somehow must be balanced with achievement. The urge to win today somehow must be tempered with a plan for tomorrow. And with the start of every training camp and the arrival of a new rookie class, the question is revisited.

"Typically, I don't want young players to play unless they earn it," said executive director of basketball operations Danny Ainge. "At the same time, I believe that young players, like veteran players, deserve an equal opportunity. I want the best players to play, whomever that may be."

Training camp for rookies and players with less than four years of NBA experience started yesterday.

The Celtics welcomed draft picks Marcus Banks, Kendrick Perkins, and Brandon Hunter, as well as Kedrick Brown, Mark Blount, and Mike James. They have three days of practice before full-squad workouts start Friday. But even then, the Celtics coaches will be keeping a close watch on the rookies.

There will be lots of playing time for young talent in the exhibition games as coach Jim O'Brien and his staff figure out where they fit in the season rotation. After all, this is the year when Banks could start the season at point guard. And the year Brown must show that he belongs in the NBA with a sustained, productive effort on defense and offense.

As for playing time for rookies and less experienced players, O'Brien says they have to show him something in camp.

"If I believe they can contribute at a high level, I'm going to play them quite a bit," said O'Brien. "If they show that they're deserving of moving ahead of somebody that's a veteran, I think they have to know that. It has already been stated to them.

"It's how quickly they can pick things up. It's very difficult to play a lot of minutes in the NBA if you don't have a good understanding of every phase in the game, what the team that you're on is trying to do."

The first few days of training camp will be spent acclimating the new players to the rigors and expectations of Boston workouts.

For the rookies and Brown, who participated in the Reebok Pro Summer League, the first day of camp was a little like a refresher course. Yesterday's morning session lasted nearly 2 1/2 hours as O'Brien reviewed defensive fundamentals. There was also an emphasis on good decision-making. And Banks proudly reported he made only two turnovers during his first NBA practice, though he has backed off a bit from broadcasting his ambitions to be a starter.

"I don't want to put any pressure on myself," said Banks. "I understand nothing is going to be given to me."

But it is clear Boston has big plans for the rookie point guard.

The Celtics need a point guard with speed for the running game they plan to implement. O'Brien has very definite training camp goals in mind for Banks. He wants the rookie to create tempo, to keep the defense on its heels, to get a good sense about how to distribute to the open man, to mature defensively, particularly when not guarding the ball. The best way to improve those skills is with playing time.

"In the preseason when you have a guy you drafted as high as Marcus, I think he's got to be force fed minutes," said O'Brien. "I don't think you can take a rookie point guard and say, `Well, you're a rookie. We're a week into it, so now you're going to be a third point guard.' You've got to get him out there and give him a chance to learn on the go. I think that's part of where our team is right now and what we have to do."

Added Ainge: "I feel like Marcus is a unique situation because we have such desperate need for a push man at his position and a defensive ball pressure guy. What he can provide in those two elements are unique, hard to find. I think he probably has the greatest opportunity of our young guys to get minutes, unless he really is not working hard enough or not producing.

"Then, we need to go in a different direction."

Ainge dismisses the notion that O'Brien does not like to play young talent, citing undrafted rookie J.R. Bremer who started 41 games last season. He figures any other young player who did not get an opportunity to show what he could do last season probably did not prove in practice that he deserved a chance.

"It's a really fine line," said Ainge. "One of our jobs as coaches and management is to develop players. It's difficult when they don't get an opportunity to play. The maturation process is so much quicker when young players get unconditional minutes and there's not pressure to win. Here, there's pressure to win.

"We want to make the playoffs and get home-court advantage and win playoff series.

"It's not like we're such a dominant team that we're in the playoffs for sure. We have to win and we have to develop so we can become a championship caliber team.

"That's going to be the question always. `Is that player going to be good enough that we have to let him grow so we can be a better team in the postseason or second half of the season?' It's a daily assessment by Jim O'Brien."

That assessment started in earnest yesterday morning.