Pitino

[Alex Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

The players Pitino has brought in are
 Billups, Mercer, Thomas, Jones, Bowen (no NBA experience)
 McCarty, Rogers, Knight (1 year players)
 DeClerq (2 year player), Edney
If he could, he would probably rid himself of all of the older players too. 
Pitino knows his talents lie in motivating and improving young players so
he is loading up on them. He'll train them until they are good NBA players 
and then eventually ship them off for a star player (Scottie Pippen?). 
  As for whether his moves with Chris Mills and Massenburg were good: he 
pretty much just used his cap space on trade bait for guys he wanted
on other people's roster. He couldn't have gotten McCarty or Rogers through 
free agency so he did it through trading. Essentially we got Rogers for a 
second round pick which is a deal. Pretty smart, if he meant to do it. 
We'll see whether losing Eric Williams is a big deal, but he would have
reduced cap flexibility if he had stayed.

As for Roy Rogers, according to NBA.com, he's a 6-10, 235lb power forward.
He averaged 6.6 pts, 4.7 reb, and 1.99 blocks in 22.5 min/game. He played 
in all 82 games. Definitely a good pickup; he'll fill a much needed role.

Alex