Good Housekeeping Award ?

["JLyell" <jlyell@concentric.net>]

Hopefully for most Celtic fans, Paul Gaston will take a look at what
Philadelphia & Denver ownership is doing to change the direction of their
teams after unacceptable seasons, and begin a similar large scale
housecleaning effort to get this franchise back on the right track.

Pat Croce has just blew out G.M. Brad Greenberg & coach Johnny Davis, and
expect to see Jerry Stackhouse gone in the off-season. It looks like Dick
Motta & his team are out after a brief stint in Denver also.

If we are lucky we will have a similar house cleaning & Red, Volk & Carr
will no longer have control of this teams future.  Although the Montross
deal could end up being as good as the Parish deal, too many other
decisions, like the long term contracts of Brown, Ellison, Barros, Radja, &
Minor have had much greater impact on the teams ability to rebuild or
acquire any decent young free agents.  This house cleaning needs to happen
before we make long term decisions on Wesley, Fox, & Williams, players who
have decent 1997 campaigns, but signing players to large multi-year deals
after one good year is what has put us in the hole we are in.  These moves
have given the Celtics, the worst team in the NBA next to expansion
Vancouver, probably the highest paid bench in the NBA, with Radja, Barros,
Brown, & Ellison taking up about $13M-$14M
annually, and most missing 1/4 to 1/2 of the season.

Without a good house cleaning I would not expect to see much improvement in
'98 unless they are able to move one or more of the backcourt
underachievers.

Wesley is a dedicated performer who with a  decent backup up could have
even been better this year, had he not been overworked.  But to use him
effectively we would need to put a big shooting 2 in the backcourt with
him, which Barros, Brown, nor Minor fit the mold due to limitations.  

Brent Barry is unhappy in L.A., I am still in favor of moving say Minor,
Barros,  or Williams for Barry.  The Clippers need a scoring 2 (plus a lot
more) ,  and the draft is deep at the 3 spot.  

Maybe a Minor & Williams for Barry & Lorenzen Wright ?

Then we go


Boston - Duncan
Vancouver - Mercer
San Antonio - Battie
Denver - Van Horn (drop down for Billups ?)
Philly - Foyle
Boston - Thomas ? McGrady ?

 or:

drop down & take the risk on Derek Anderson & also pick up a Jerald
Honeycutt, Reggie Freeman, Cory Carr,  or Miles Simon.

Second round - Dedric Willoughby, C. O'Bannon ?, Scot Pollard ?, Kebu
Stewert ? Kiwane Garris ?

This would give us a lot of young talent and an excellent foundation for
rebuilding under the right leadership.