Re: Newspapers and....Joe Smith?

[jwt2@lehigh.edu (jwt2@lehigh.edu)]

Why does everyone want to trade Walker for Joe Smith?  In my opinion Walker is
more skilled and has the potential to be a better player than Smith.  Smith is
NOT an NBA center, and he will be a free agent after this year which means
that if we can't or don't resign him then we lose him and Walker and end up
with nobody.  The only way a deal like this could be justified is if it
involves getting rid of someone like Barros, Minor, or Brown to free up salary
money, but even then i'm still not sure i'd like it.

As far as a stats comparison of the two players, here it is:

Player     MPG    PPG    RPG    FG%    Pts/48 minutes
Walker    36.2   17.5    9.0   .426      23.22
Smith     38.6   18.7    8.5   .454      23.21

As you can see they are very comprable.  The one place that Smith has the
upper hand is fg%, but remember that Walker is just a rookie and his shot
selection will improve with time.

Jeff