No Tim Duncan No Cry

[Jeremy <jwarren@emerald.tufts.edu>]

	Well there's no way I can sugar coat this, so here goes: everyone
who is blaming the results of the lottery on M.L. sounds incredibly
stupid.
	The way I see it, during times of crisis you have to look for the
positives.  At least Duncan will be going to a western conference team.
And having the third pick (as opposed to the first) will save us about $1M
in cap space.  Granted these are very small positives, but you have to
start somewhere.
	Now everything changes.  The only way we'll get a superstar player
is through free agency in '98 or '99.  So let's take Battie (the best PF 
in the draft) if he's available at #3, trade down with the #6 to unload
deadwood, and renounce Wesley and Fox.  Hopefully we can pick up a
Daniels/Billups/Knight with the pick we get.   In the second round we can
take a Keoul/Koul/Lawson/Zwikker as a backup center.
	This would give us a chance at Penny, Pippen, Kemp, and the many
1995 draftees (Garnett, Wallace, Stoudamire, Smith, etc...) who will all
be free agents in '98.  Admittedly letting Wesley go is very risky, but
there are so many big time free agents available next year that we should
be able to get one of them if we can make a competitive offer.
	Or the conservative approach would be to draft Battie and Cato
(after trading down) with the first rounders, and look at Woolridge or
Page with the secound rounder to backup the resigned David Wesley.

Everything's a lot more complicated now,
Jeremy