Williams/Mills fiasco article from ONHOOPS

[Chris Littlefield <chrisl@mjr.com>]

This can be found at:

http://www.onhoops.com/articles/Aug97/capboston.html

Adam, Dorine and I are not the only ones a wee bit confused, a little
concerned, about Pitino and Wallace's General Management this summer.


Williams Dumped, Mills and Tyus arrive



August 23, 1997

Rick Pitino's a great coach, don't get us wrong, but does he really know
what he's doing when it comes to compling a competitive roster? Sure don't
look like
it.

So far this summer, Pitino and Celts GM Chris Wallace, formerly the
Director of Player Personnel with Pat Riley's Miami Heat, have given away
Dino Radja,
Rick Fox, let David Wesley flee as a free agent, and now have traded
non-stop forward Eric Williams to the Denver Nuggets for 2 future second
round picks.
Two second rounders?!? Williams, an excellent young prospect who's battled
tirelessly at both foward positions for the undermanned C's the last 2
seasons,
has just been given away. What's going on? When we first heard that
Williams had been dealt to the Nuggs, we thought Wow, Eric and probably Ron
Mercer
swapped for Antonio McDyess, or maybe even Tony Battie.... How wrong we were...

This season, I (Matt) had both Williams and Antoine Walker on my Fantasy
League team, so I was taking particular note of their production. Even when
the
Celts would lose, it was a sure bet that either Eric or Antoine would score
20. And it was testament to Eric's skills that he'd often be out-scoring
Walker, the
bigger name, the lottery pick, the team's frontcourt focal point. Williams
was never a big glass eater, but he gave his all for the team, willingly
battling against
power forwards and centers in Boston's woefully anaemic frontcourt. Ever
since he came into the league just 2 seasons ago, Williams has shown the
proverbial nose for the ball, and an uncanny ability to be at the right
place at the right time - not unlike the way Cedric Ceballos used to play
during his first
tour of duty in Phoenix.

We are still in a state of mild shock that Pitino would just give him away,
for a 1999 second round pick, and a 2001 second rounder. It may as well be
nothing. In Denver, Allan Bristow and new coach Bill Hanzlik must be
laughing into their milkshakes - how often do you get a 15 ppg second year
forward
for practically nothing? Last year, Denver had one of the least successful
frontcourts in the game, but now, alongside the Dyessman, they've added
Battie,
Danny Fortson, and now Williams. Average age around 23, and 3 of the 4 are
lottery picks. Throw in the re- habbing LaPhonso Ellis, and you've either
got
the makings of a terrific young forward-line, or a salary cap nightmare
once all these guys come off their 3 year rookie contracts in the next few
summers.

And that, of course, is really what this trade is all about - Cap Space.
Boston were paying Williams a tick over a million bones a year. Add that to
the $2* mill
of bonus cap space the league handed everyone last weekend, and the thought
of further dabbling in the free agent market was too compelling for Pitino
and
Wallace to pass up. With this extra maneauvrability, Boston soon came to
terms with ex-Cavalier Chris Mills, one of the best and most under-rated
pure small
forwards in the league, and summer sprite Tyus Edney, late of the Sacrmento
Kings. These are 2 OK pickups for the Celts - both players have playoff
experience, and both add further depth to a Celtic team that was the
shallowest in the entire league this season.

But. Where so they fit in? Does Edney get any time what with rookie
Chauncey Billups the assumed starter at the point, and Dana Barros and Dee
Brown still
on Pitino's roster (for the time being, at least...)? What about Mills?
He's been signed for 6 years at over $4 million per, but Boston is full of
swingmen -
Mercer, Greg Minor, Todd Day, Bruce Bowen, and are his stats (13 points,
45% shooting, 6 boards) really that much better than Williams' (15 points,
46%
shooting, 4.5 boards)?. It's alright to go free agent shopping to benefit
your team, but Boston seem to believe they have to win a title next season
instead of
working towards a long-term plan. They had a choice this offseason - do we
go after every free agent we possibly can, or do we grab 1 or 2 key players
and
leave some room open for next summer's free agent bonanza? To their
detriment, they chose the former.

Boston now have 13 players on guaranteed contracts for next season, a sal
cap that's as full as a harvest frog, and very little balance on their
roster. As we
indicated in the previous paragraph, 9 of their players fulfill the same 2
positions. Where's the depth up front? They have Walker at power forward,
second
year center Travis Knight in the middle, and 6-9 journeyman Tony Massenburg
as backup for both. Will Pervis Ellison be able to walk this year? That's
hardly looking like the front court of a playoff team to us.

Obviously, when a team only wins 15 games, you need to make changes. We
have no poroblem with that, but we at least figured Pitino would have more
of a
clue than ML Carr. And really, there's no way ML would've made such stupid
moves as to give away Rick Fox, sign up Bruce Bowen, and then deal
Williams for 2 imaginary second rounders. Wallace had a perfect subject
lesson in Miami when Riles took over. He was ruthless, and fast, but he
re-modelled
the Heat in stages, getting Alonzo Mourning in November, Tim Hardaway in
February, and trying for Juwon Howard the following summer. Riley patieintly
waited for the right time and place to make a move. He didn't try and solve
all his problems in one summer of mediocre free agency.