Lucky 13

["Damon Graff"<dgraff@mfi.com>]

     After such a lull in activity, things have certainly heated up the 
     last few days.  The new team is taking shape, but there is certainly 
     more to come.
     
     First, my 2 cents on recent developments.  Yes, it's a shame to see 
     Williams go, as he was definitely a fun player to watch, but this 
     "trade" - Williams for Mills, Edney and 2 2nd rounders - is one I 
     would make every time, especially when Williams will be a free agent 
     next year and these guys are sewn up for the long term.  I was 
     disappointed that we didn't hold out for more in return from Denver, 
     but on reflection, it might actually be a problem for us to end up 
     with a low first rounder in return, because we'd have to commit some 
     pretty big money for three years for them, and with the cap stuff 
     we've added lately, we might not have that flexibility.
     
     Right now, we're looking at (in no particular order): 1. Knight 2. 
     DeClerq 3. Ellison 4. Walker 5. Massenberg 6. Bowen 7. Mills 8. Minor 
     9. Mercer 10. Barros 11. Brown 12. Billups and 13. Edney.  Not a bad 
     group, but of course we're only allowed 12 players at a time.  This 
     tells me that one of the following scenarios is in the works, and 
     possibly already decided on by Pitino and his staff:
     
     Option 1: Release someone.  The obvious problem with this is that we 
     end up eating a big salary and don't even get to keep the player in 
     return.  This is highly unlikely, but not out of the question that 
     they'd consider this, with Minor in particular.
     
     Option 2: Another trade for draft picks.  I don't think too many 
     people on this list would really get upset if the C's ended up 
     shipping Barros, Minor or Ellison, if not Brown, to ANYONE for a 
     future second round pick or two.  The problem is that each of these 
     players carries with them a pretty hefty salary, and it's not terribly 
     likely that someone will just choose to eat it without making us take 
     one of theirs in return.
     
     Option 3: Two-for-one or three-for-one, three-for-two trade.  This 
     seems like the likeliest of the scenarios so far, and the one which 
     excites me the most.  First of all, most of the roster is presently 
     untradeable because they've all just joined the team.  It really 
     leaves only Walker, Ellison, Minor, Brown and Barros as the only 
     players we could POSSIBLY trade (before the start of the season, that 
     is).  If we deem Walker untradeable (oh, please, don't think of 
     trading Walker!), that leaves us with four players, each of which is 
     carrying a big salary with them.  I think all of us would support a 
     trade of more than one of these guys, ESPECIALLY since whoever we get 
     in return would have to be one player making a whole lot of money.  
     Think about it.  If we send Ellison and Barros, say, somewhere, the 
     guy we get in return (and it would have to be only one player due to 
     roster size considerations) would have to me making a lot of cash, and 
     while they will probably be grossly overpaid for their performance (or 
     else their present team wouldn't be willing to ship them elsewhere for 
     Ellison and Barros), they've got to have a pretty good game to make 
     that kind of cash to begin with.  Is this where we mention Vin Baker 
     again?  Ellison, Barros and a future #1 pick for Baker?  I'd pull the 
     trigger on that one so fast...
     
     The one slightly disappointing thing about all of these free agent 
     signings is that it's not leaving us any room on the roster for a 7 
     foot plus behemoth project (like Garth Joseph).  Maybe if we end up 
     working some kind of magical three-for-one (though I have a hard time 
     thinking of big enough duds making that kind of money - Coleman, 
     maybe?), it would leave us with the space, but that seems like a 
     longshot.
     
     They said in the Globe that it'd probably be a few weeks until there 
     were any other moves, which I hope is not the case.  Strike while the 
     iron's hot!  Let's finish this, ship of some of ML's last scrubs and 
     solidify the roster that'll bring us our next championship!
     
     By the way, what do you think a roster of Baker, Walker, Mercer, 
     Mills, Billups, Knight, DeClerq, Massenberg, Bowen, Edney, and two of 
     the four big contract ML players could accomplish?  Sounds pretty 
     solid to me...
     
        - Damon