RE: Rebuilding: Frontcourt

[John Lyell <Jlyell@concentric.net>]

I don't know about this one. Ostertag reminds me too much of Montross. 
 Besides being a big body , he does not offer much scoring, ball handling 
or passing skills.

On Sunday, April 19, 1998 9:08 AM, Starke R. Farrell 
[SMTP:sfarrell@dixie-net.com] wrote:
> An article at OnHoops made an interesting proposal.  I think this idea
> has potential.  Check it out at
>
> http://www.onhoops.com/articles/Apr98/csup.html
>
>
> A final option would be to try and straight out trade for a center. The
> center would have to have in some way worn out his
> welcome with his current team; otherwise he would not be on the trading
> block. The likeliest candidate for such a trade would
> be Greg Ostertag (Utah Jazz). Ostertag signed a massive contract
> extension last year (40 mil till '03) which kicks in this
> summer. While the size of his contract was enough to piss off Karl
> Malone, Ostertag dug himself further into a hole by showing
> up to camp out of shape - thereby peeving the entire Jazz organization.
> Ostertag has lost his starting spot in the lineup to Greg
> Foster and if the Jazz do not return to the Finals 'Tag will be the one
> player held most responsible by both fans and
> management. It seems reasonable to suppose that Utah would welcome an
> offer of Travis Knight and Greg Minor for Greg
> Ostertag straight-up. Both Utah and Boston would benefit by moving
> players with 'unmovable' contracts. Utah would eliminate
> a good portion of Ostertag's contract from their salary cap - up to
> one-half after Minor's pact expires in 2001. Boston assumes
> a larger contractual obligation but eliminates two contracts that
> otherwise would continue to haunt the organization.
>
> The deal would also make sense from a player's perspective. All three
> players have been marginalized in their current situations,
> with the two principles - Ostertag and Knight - losing their spots in
> the starting five. Knight's game, which features running,
> shooting and passing skills but no bulk, should flourish in the shadow
> of the Mailman just as it did when teamed with Shaq (and
> Knight is from Utah, unlike Rony Seikaly). Minor, included to make the
> deal work cap-wise, provides back-up at small
> forward and shooting guard without the attitude problems of Chris
> Morris. Ostertag - young, with play-off experience and now
> with something to prove - should provide the rebounding, shot-blocking
> and bulk so badly needed by the C's at center. Can
> Ostertag play PitinoBall? For that matter, can any NBA-sized center play
> PitinoBall? Ostertag did play at Kansas under Roy
> Williams. If any coach can get Ostertag into shape to play the ball of
> his life, it is Rick Pitino.
>