Draft/trade speculations

["Ivan K. Choi" <choi@hpcc50.corp.hp.com>]

Does Don Nelson get paid by the number of players traded or
what?  Living out here in the Bay Area and having observed 
Nellie as first GM and then coach of the Warriors, I have
to say he likes to make very risky trades to go for the
"potential upside."  For example, Mitch Richmond for
Billy Owens.  He also has the same philosophy for the    
college draft, thus he ended up with Richmond, Hardaway,
Sprewell (good picks) and chumps like Chris Washburn.

I wonder if we could have offered their first-round pick
back to them (provided it's not say top 5) for Jim Jackson.

I would love to see the C's trading away Fox for Dampier.
The Pacers drafted Dampier because at the time, Smits
just had surgery and they weren't sure if they could
retain the Davis brothers in the free agency market (they
did).  So basically, Dampier is expendable.  I've actually
advocated this trade early this season.  Going by the
box score (not the most accurate way to scout), Dampier
seems to be a competent backup center (better than what
we could expect from Brick, Lister, Conlon, Szabo).
With or without Tim Duncan, we can still use some
improvement for a big man (a legit center and not a 4
playing a 5).

As for potential draftees, I would say stay away from
Ed Gray (Cal shooting guard) and Brevin Knight
(Stanford point guard).  I'm a Cal alum and I am so
pleasantly surprised by the team this season, but
Ed Gray never met a shot he didn't like, a la Todd
Day.  As for Knight, I don't know if it's lingering
effects from his knee injury, but he's been shooting
very poorly (a lot of 2-14 type games).  His only 
redeeming value is his assists.  Ok, so he'll probably
be better than Sherman Douglas, but the last thing
we need at this point is waste any pick on an 
undersized guard.

Sorry for this long message, but finally, does anyone
know when Greg Minor is scheduled to be back?  I know
there's all this talk about drafting/acquiring a 2,
but ML did sign Greg to a long-term deal for a fair
amount of $$$, which probably means Greg will be
part of the C's future for a while.