Re: No to Van Horn: Thoughts on the big men

[bis@world.std.com (Adi Inbar)]

> From: Roy Enrile <renrile@qualcomm.com>
> On Wed, 12 Mar 1997, JLyell wrote:
> > > From: Adi Inbar <bis@world.std.com>
> > > FORGET ABOUT WHAT THE TEAM NEEDS.  The team needs good players, one
> > > way or another.  When you're over .500, that's when you start worrying
> > > about who can do what.
> > > 
> > 
> > I agree 100% !  Lets not draft Koul just because we need a center. Didn't
> > we learn from Acie Earl & Montross ?
> > 
> 
> My point was that Foyle, Battie, Lafrentz ARE among the best players
> available, and happen to be what we need.
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> Taking Koul or someone like Acie over Van Horn would be dumb.  Taking
> one of the above shotblockers would be reasonable.

I'd like to clarify one thing: I am *not* necessarily advocating
drafting Van Horn.  If you think these other players will be better
NBA players than Van Horn, no problem.  What I *am* saying is that
when discussing a high draft pick for a rock-bottom team, you should
purge any notion of "what we need" from your mind.  You don't match a
star player to the specific needs of a team like the Celtics.  You get
the stars, then match the rest of the team to them.  Nobody on the
team is indispensable, not even Antoine.  Certainly not David Wesley
or Eric Williams.


Oh, and I'd like to add one more thing, in response to JLyell:  If the
Celtics draft Alexander Koul, with *any* first round pick, I'm going
to become a Knicks fan for the rest of my life.  :)