Catching up as well

[Chris Littlefield <chrisl@mjr.com>]

Hi, folks,

	Been gone for a week, and am now blowing off my work-day reading
C's digests.  Hope I'm not way out of date, but have the following thoughts
as I peruse what's been being discussed:

1) I see Wesley as a more productive player than Chris Childs.  Is this
because Childs (supposedly) has far better players around him and does not
need to produce?  Maybe, but I don't think so.  Is Childs worth $4 mil a
year?  No way.  Is Wesley?  Good question, but for comparisons' sake, all
Wesley has to do is look down the bench to the suit section.
"Gee...Barros, a 5'10" 2-guard who's a defensive sieve, has a 6 year, $20.8
mil contract.  Am I worth more?  Dee Brown, a 6'1" 2-guard with a bad
attitude and zero consistency, has a 6 year, $20 mil contract.  I, David
Wesley, who can shoot, defend, and actually _play_ the point, while almost
leading the league in minutes, am making $350K.  I am a free agent.  Time
to ante up, ML."

And ML will.  I think $4 mil a year, easy, particularly since Wesley was
his find.

2) If Derek Anderson is available with the 2nd round pick, oh yeah!

3) A 5-man front-line rotation of Duncan, Radja, Walker, Williams or Fox,
and Van Horn would suit me just fine.  Whoever had the post imagining
Walker at the 4 and Van Horn at the 3 had an excellent thought.  That would
be a very nice inside/outside game, and the C's do need more outside
shooting.  However, if the C's do, cross fingers, get Duncan, _and_ go big
with the Dallas pick, Williams or Fox will have to go, or Fox will have to
play exclusively at the 2.  There are too many bodies to keep everybody
happy.  What happened to a nice 8-man rotation, with 4 role players?  The
only time ML seems to do that is when he only has 8 serviceable bodies,
half of them small forwards.

4) Wesley needs a backup.  I think Brown/Barros is who ML wants to use to
fill that need.  However, if Chauncey Billups comes out, I would seriously
think about taking him with the Dallas pick depending on who's available.
He is a 6'3" combo guard who can handle the ball, shoot, and spell Wesley,
particularly against bigger points.  He seems to fit into ML's concept of
the multi-position player, like he himself was (and Ainge and DJ in the
backcourt).  He also seems to have some good intangibles.  He has carried
this Colorado team on his back to their first Top 25 ranking in many years.
I don't think he's a 30-35 minute point man, but could be an almost ideal
third guard.

In my opinion, The C's need help at both bookends, center and the point.
If they resign Wes, they need to find a backup for him.  The 2 spot is not
particularly settled, but I'd rather have a 1-2 like Billups than a 2-3
like Mercer, given similar upsides.  Taking the best athlete only goes so
far, unless you want to field the all 6'5" to 6'8" team.  The 2,3, and 4
positions are filled, both with starters and with backups.  I personally am
finding Walker better suited for the 4, though I question his defensive
_strength_, though not his quickness nor his nose for the ball.  There is
no backup point guard.  There are, obviously, no real centers, and a bunch
of injured power forwards.

5) Washington has no pick this year.  They had to give it up in order to be
able to resign Juwan Howard.  Washington is also currently a lottery team.
If it stays that way (my money says it does) does anyone know what this
means to the lottery?  Does it mean that there are only 12 lottery picks,
rather than 13?  What does it do to the overall percentages of winning the
lottery?

6) Everyone's saying Duncan's too small to play center in the NBA, night
after night.  We won't know until next year.  However, while I did not see
the college team that nearly beat Dream Team 3 last summer, all the reports
indicated that Duncan gave quite a showing against the NBA's best, Shaq,
Robinson, and Dream.  Dream is the best example of a small center, but
other small, but successful centers include Mourning (he's an All-Star as a
center, too), and to a lesser extent Brian Williams, Seikaly, Hot Rod
Williams and Chris Gatling.  I think Duncan will be fine.

7) Eric Williams has the potential to be a 20ppg scorer at the 3 spot
without much difficulty.  I would prefer to trade Fox than trade him, given
the choice.  However, were I to trade him, I wouldn't mind seeing Kittles
in Green and Minor and Brown gone.

8) Day has been averaging 20 points and shooting 49% from the field the
last two weeks, and 19 points for the last month.  He's been clutch lately.
If there is an option to pick up his contract for one more year, I say do
it.

9) Wesley's, Williams, Walker's, Fox's numbers are down in the last month.
Think Walker may be hitting the Wall?

10) If we overload the front line now, what chance is there that the kids
will get disgruntled and say 'seeya' when their first contracts are up?

11) I don't like the talk about Vaughn as a backup for  Wesley.  In today's
league, lottery picks are not backups unless they are busts.  Vaughn is not
what we need.  Well, you say, you slotted Billups as a backup...  Billups,
if picked, would play 28-35 minutes a night at both guard positions as a
6th or 7th man.  Vaughn is strictly a point, and the last thing we need to
do is piss Wesley off after he's given his heart and soul to this team.

12) Charlotte, I notice, has beaucoup bucks under the cap.  They have no
point guard.  Wesley averages 30+ points against them.  Think they might
dangle a small cash incentive in front of him for next year?

13) What do folks think of Raef LaFrentz?  Never seen him play, but since
Pollard went down, he's put up pretty serious numbers (20+/10+) and seems
to be showing a little more interest in the pros now.  I'm not proponing
him as someone we should take, but as a potential lottery pick that could
deepen a week draft from positions 6 on...  thoughts?


Thanks for listening to me ramble.

Chris