Re: Walker being traded

[Adam A Suchocki <Twilight@world.std.com>]

I hope and pray Walker is not traded for one main reason - there is no way
you could get fair value in return for him.  Walker seems to have all the
tools and talent to be a dominant player in this league.  I hope we see
similar from Billups and Mercer, but currently Walker has been the best
all around player for a rookie of any player I've seen since Grant Hill.
Despite only being 20 years old, Walker was a dominanting rebounder, a
good and continually improving passer, and a good scorer.  he lacks a
midrange game, but that, more than any other skills, is very teachable.
Moreover, he plays agressive defense.  I'm excited about the prospects of
where Walker's game might be when he is as old as Bird was when he was a
rookie.  I just can't think of another player who came in as young as
Walker and was able to do as much as he did.

Now these rumors about his attitude are odd, mainly because there seems to
be so little to base them on.  The first I heard about them was about
2/3rds of the way through last season.  A poll had just come out listing
the top rookies, and Walker was ranked something like 7th despite being in
the top 4 in almost every statistical catagories for rookies.  He was
interviewed about it, and under direct questioning admitted he didn't
understand why he was being snubbed, because his stats were as good as
anyone.  A day or two later, Walker had a monster game, but all Peter May
could talk about in the Boston Globe was how Walker needed to grow up and
learn stats were not everything.  In fact, from that point on, May went
out of his way to follow up anything Walker did well with a comment saying
he was too preoccupied with stats.  After Walker's two triple doubles at
the end of the season, May continued to criticize Walker for being stat
greedy, and needed to be a better team player.

For his part, Walker did seem to get a little upset, especially with the
way May kept implying that the only reason Walker wasn't getting a lot of
national intention as he was perceived as being stat hungry and selfish.
Walker did make some agressive comments back about being as good as the
other top rookies, again pointing to his performance last year - to which
May again said  winning is the only thing that matters, and Walker needs
to stop looking at stats as accomplishments.  

All of this seems to be just attacking Walker for the sake of a story.  i
don't understand the idea of  attacking Walker for getting triple doubles
- - and I've yet to figure out how one is selfish by getting too many
assists and rebounds.  It realy has seemed to me that Walker has been the
victim of a repeat it enough times and people will begin to believe it
smear campaign in regards to his on the court performance.

Now his off the court performance may be another story.  The press has
been remarkable quiet about the fact that Walker has not been attending
most, if not all, of Pitino's summer workouts and camps, despite the fact
that everyone except for Pervis Ellison appears to have been going to all
of them.  In fact, Pitino has quoted attendence problems at summer
workouts as being primary reasons for getting rid of Radja, trading Eric
Williams for nothing, and possibly not wanting David Wesley and Rick Fox
back.  On top of this, as many have pointed out, Pitino has been most
likely to trade anyone he praises and says he won't trade.  This being the
case, it seems Antoine Walker and Dee Brown are the most likely to get
traded.  Dee is another one who has missed some workouts (at least the
early workouts) and Pitino has been loudest about both of their potential
under his system.

I wouldn't mind to see Dee go as long as the deal wasn't taking a longer
term contract in return, but moving Walker  would be the teams biggest
mistake in the last 15 years.  You rarely get a player with Walker's
potential, and moving him would never get equal value.  We might be able
to get Joe Smith, Antonio McDeyus, or Vin Baker, but none of them have the
potential to excell at as many facets of the game as Walker.  All are good
players, but none of them seem to do much to make other players better
(the old cliche) while Walker did seem to click with Fox, Williams, and
Wesley to the extent that they often would all start clicking together
(those mid season games with only 8 active players were very exciting and
well played, and they are to me, one of the better standards to judge how
well Pitinos team is playing by the end of the season - for around a
month and a half, there was a bit of a buzz around the league about the
Celtics were the one below .500 team that no one wanted to play because
of tehir intensity and the fact that they were always still in the game
until the end)

Moving Walker would just be insane.  I've been trying to come up with all
of these times when he was selfish on the court and hurt the team, but i
really am not coming up with any.  The only other big knock on him I've
heard is the rumor that he doesn't want to play for Pitino and with
Mercer.  this may jus be a rumor, or it may be a problem, but it would be
nice to have a fact or two before Walker is labeled as an attitude problem
who needs to be moved.  He hasn't seemed to have any attitude or
personal problems with managemnet as extremeas Pippen, Kemp, Richmand, or
Hardaway - yet each of those teams have realized that even with problems
that bad, trading is usually a mistake because you can't get fair value in
return.  For the Celtics to become contenders, they need Antoine Walker
level talent - and right now he is the only player they have who has
shown that sort of talent and potential at the NBA level.  Billups and
Mercer might reach it some day (though most reporters seem to be saying it
is unlikely Mercer is even at regular NBA starter level at this point of
his career, and may have trouble starting even with no real competition
for the position).  Walker has all of the physical tools to better than
just an all-star.  He is not there yet, but you don't trade away that sort
of potential.  You don't get second chances at players of that caliber,
and you never seem to get fair compensation in return.  A few years from
now, Walker may prove to be just another very good player, and that is the
time you consider trading him.  Until hes had a chance to mature (both
physically and mentally) it is to big a risk to move him.

Adam
 

On Sat, 6 Sep 1997, Mike Allen wrote:

> Would everyone out there who has the slightest idea that Walker is giong to
> be traded please forget about it!  Pitino has said time and time again that
> Walker is going to be the building block of the Celt's future.  Walker is
> the best thing to happen to the Green & White since Bird so why would Rick
> get rid of him for an underachieving attitude case (McDyess)?  Walker is
> Rick's kind of player, he has been since the ol' Kentucky days again,
> another reason not to trade Walker.  As for Billups and Mercer being
> traded, I don't see it happening, especially not for McDyess.  Why get rid
> of two guys who have talent, and want to play for Pitino for a guy who
> doesn't use the talent he has, has an attitude and is gonna want huge cash
> A.S.A.P.?  We don't need McDyess, I say wait a year and try and get Vin
> Baker, because I have been told that he has a clause that I believe lets
> him shop around next summer.  I may be wrong and if I am then then Rick
> should make an offer for him, you don't get much very better than him as
> your PF.
>