Summing up the summer moves

["Belanger,Roger" <rbelange@foxboro.com>]

I know this one's a bit long, but it is a pretty good review of this
summers activity.

Roger

PRO BASKETBALL
Summing up the summer moves=20

By Peter May, Globe Staff, 09/07/97=20



The NBA off season still has a month or so to go, technically. But given
that Bo Outlaw is probably the best available player on the market, it
seems that the major bloodletting is over.=20



Thus it's time to look at the good, bad, and ugly from the Summer of
'97.=20



BIGGEST WINNER (PLAYER): Brian Grant. He turned into Shawn Kemp pretty
quickly, didn't he? Last year, he played a total of 24 games. Portland
saw him as a cornerstone and ponied up $63 million of owner Paul Allen's
petty cash. We hear the league almost nullified the deal because Grant
didn't even have a criminal record, making him unsuitable for Portland.
The sad truth: He turned down more from Cleveland. Is this a great
country or what?=20



FIRST RUNNER-UP: Brian Williams. He narrowly edges Travis Knight because
Knight would eventually have gotten his from the Lakers. Only Rick
Pitino deemed him indispensable this year. Williams signed for
$40-something million even though he has never been a classic, frontline
center. Still, he's better than what Detroit has, and he has to worry
about getting his large-size derriere kicked by Greg Ostertag only twice
a year.=20



WINNER EMERITUS: Dino Radja. He not only got out of somewhere he wasn't
wanted, he also got the same amount of money to play half the amount of
games when he isn't out on his yacht in the Aegean. No wonder he misses
M.L. Carr.=20



BIGGEST LOSER (PLAYER): Chris Dudley. Yeah, I know, he loses in court
about as often as Perry Mason. But he also passed up a guaranteed $13
million and signed for $272,500 with Portland. We know this was done to
facilitate a trade and we don't think for a minute that this might be,
ahem, cap circumvention, do we? Even if he wins the arbitration case,
will his new team (New York) pay him an average of $6.5 million a year
the next two years? He's 32. And if he loses? He'll have an interesting
1040 to file.=20



FIRST RUNNER-UP: Cliff Robinson. He was sure he was worth $6 million-$7
million a year. No one else was, however. He settled for the dreaded $1
million exception with the Suns in hopes of being rewarded next year in
the marketplace. The Suns won't automatically re-sign him unless he
plays well for them. Jerry Colangelo's gratitude has limits.=20



LOSER EMERITUS: Todd Day. Notice all those teams (Atlanta, Cleveland)
looking for help at small forward? Notice any of them knocking down
Day's door? He probably still doesn't get it. Maybe Jerome Stanley can
straighten him out.=20



BIGGEST WINNER (TEAM): LA Lakers. GM Extraordinaire Jerry West said it
best: ''We have a championship-caliber team.'' Rick Fox is a terrific
addition. The Lakers are six-deep and that doesn't include Kobe Bryant.
The downside is that they still have Nick Van Exel. They also have to
rely on Shaq, who, as we all know, has won everywhere except college and
the pros.=20



FIRST RUNNER-UP: Detroit: Brian Williams gives them someone in the
middle, which is a vast improvement. The Pistons also got their main
guys re-signed, rid themselves of Otis Thorpe (who did help them,
however), and feel they are in a better position to sample the Chicago
fumes this season.=20



WINNER EMERITUS: Chicago: They re-signed Mike. Anything else?=20



BIGGEST LOSER (TEAM): Cleveland. Wow, are the Cavs becoming Clipper
East? Not only did they lose two starters (Chris Mills, Bobby Phills)
but they ended up empty-handed in the free agent market, fruitlessly
pursuing Grant, Fox, Williams, and who knows who else? Maybe players are
reluctant to go there and play Stall Ball. Maybe it's Cleveland's
reputation. There is no other team that took as hard a hit.=20



FIRST RUNNER-UP: Sacramento. They were pretty pathetic to begin with, so
they can't be the top choice. But the loss of Grant hurts, and Mitch
Richmond isn't going to be pleased with that development. He wants out
and he may demand it now. They also got nothing for Tyus Edney, who,
lest we forget, played in 70 games, starting 20.=20



LOSER EMERITUS: LA Clippers: Malik Sealy said it best when he signed
with the Pistons: ''It's great to be back in the NBA again.'' How does
Bill Fitch put up with all this? And now he has Stojko.=20



BIGGEST IMPACT ACQUISITION: Chris Mullin. The Pacers desperately needed
a reliable, respected, accurate shooter not named Reggie Miller. Mullin
is all of those and he gives rookie coach Larry Bird a badly needed
scoring threat. The qualifier, as we all know, is health. Mullin doesn't
do the Pacers any good if he's wearing civvies.=20



LEAST IMPACT ACQUISITION: Terry Mills. If he can't make threes, what
good is he? And with the new line, is he as good as he once was? We'll
see. The guess here is that he'll have company on Miami pine.=20



WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR:=20



Chicago - What will be really interesting is if Chicago wins again and
Jordan decides he still wants to play. That would put a dent in
Chicago's rebuilding plans unless - and this is a big unknown - the
current collective bargaining agreement gets overhauled next summer.=20



Minnesota - Will they even have a meaningful next year? The Kevin
Garnett situation is huge. It doesn't appear that the Wolves will get
the kid signed by Oct. 1, which means they either trade him or take
their chances again next summer. They can't afford to lose him. Can they
afford to sign him?=20



Phoenix - Jason Kidd, Danny Manning, and Steve Nash are the only players
under contract for 1988-99. That weather, that golf, all that money. Get
ready for another run at the title.=20



Boston - Travis, Andrew, and the boys.=20



Defense counsel



Eric Williams's agent, Mark Bartelstein, is somewhat amused to hear that
his client was shipped out of town because he missed a couple of
appointments. ''I don't want to go to war with Rick Pitino; he has to do
what he feels is best,'' said Bartelstein. ''But I thought the comments
were unfair. Eric went to Atlanta when he didn't have to. He went to
rookie camp, which he didn't have to do. He came up for the skills,
which he didn't have to do. He has worked hard this summer. He missed
some appointments with the strength coach. He is a guy who is
tremendously committed to being a great player.'' Williams gives Denver
an instant starter whose contract is up at the end of the season. It
hasn't done much for interest in the Nuggets, however. The team's
non-cable television outlet will not be doing games this season after
seeing a 60 percent drop in ratings the last three years ... While
Williams's departure may be a signal from Pitino that it's his way or
the highway, the coach may be reaching with his plan to read the
definition of ''professionalism'' to the players. All he has to do is
show game films of last year highlighting the day-in, day-out commitment
of Rick Fox and David Wesley, two players he didn't want enough to keep.
They were professionals in the truest sense, maintaining their dignity
and their integrity in the face of a ridiculous situation. And Marty
Conlon makes three ... The Sporting News polled its Internet readers on
how well they thought Pitino's Celtics would do this season. All we can
say from the results is that optimism has run amok. There were four
categories: Playoffs, NBA Finals, Lottery, or Back to UK. Of the 1,127
people who voted, none - not one - thought the Celtics would miss the
playoffs. And none - not one - thought Pitino should go back to
Kentucky. On the other hand, 85 percent picked the Celtics to make the
playoffs and 15 percent picked them to make it to the NBA Finals. And
this was after Jordan signed!=20



Did Dudley do right?=20



Everyone is watching the Dudley hearing. You may recall Dudley was one
of the earliest, though not the first, to have a one-year-and-out clause
in his contract. Now, he's back at the arbitration table, saying his new
deal with Portland does not deprive him of his so-called Larry Bird
rights. The NBA feels that Dudley re-signed for less than his market
value (that is indisputable) and that it was all done to get Dudley
traded to a team that could handle him capwise (the Knicks or someone
else over the cap). In other words, it's salary cap gymnastics. An
arbitrator ruled recently that a third team can't use its cap room to
facilitate a trade for two other teams. That went against the union.
This one is a little different, however ... Mark Fleisher, who
represents Radja, reports the former Celtic was named MVP of a major
preseason tournament in Europe. ''There were five or six of the top
teams in Europe playing,'' Fleisher said. ''Panathinaikos won the whole
thing.'' As for Radja's knee, Fleisher said, ''Right now, it's OK. The
question all along has been what it would look like in five or six
months. Or, as the Philadelphia doctors said, in two or three years.
That's always been the issue.'' (Methinks the Sixers' doctors would have
found nothing wrong with Radja's knee had the deal been for Derrick
Coleman.) ... So, Wayne Embry, is Cleveland really turning into the
NBA's version of Chernobyl? ''I don't think so,'' the Cavs president
said. ''Players choose teams for different reasons. Cleveland is a great
place to live, a great place to play. We've always tried to be a
first-class organization, do things the right way. Rick [Fox] wanted to
be in the movies. I think you find that happens more in Los Angeles than
Cleveland. It's just getting tougher and tougher in this league [for
small-market teams]. There are some serious issues that need to be
addressed. We're all aware of them. We have to keep the parity. You have
to have a league. All the players can't congregate in all the big cities
with all the warm weather.'' ... Pervis Ellison - you remember him - has
been working on a Celtic-designed weight program all summer in
Washington. His agent, Bill Strickland, said Ellison ''has been working
out regularly. I think they would be wise to give him every opportunity
in camp to see what he can do. I think Pervis has a little bit of a
challenge ahead of him and the Celtics could be the beneficiary of
that.'' ... Strickland is still a bit steamed over the way another
client, Fox, was ushered out of town. There was an agreement between the
player and the team that the Celtics had to wrangle out of to sign
Knight. Fox may not be making the money he once was, but he stands to
get a nice playoff check with the Lakers. He also turned down $18
million over four years from Cleveland (see above) although he might
have gone there had the term been longer. ''Cleveland's offer wasn't
what Rick wanted in terms of years or dollars so he decided to roll the
dice and go with a contender,'' Strickland said. ''Los Angeles won for
two reasons. There's Hollywood. And he feels it's a longer window to
win.''



This story ran on page D02 of the Boston Globe on 09/07/97.=20
=A9 Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.=20