Re: Antoine

[D Parker <danp@town.ipswich.ma.us>]

On Sun, 26 Apr 1998, Shailendra K Mishra wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Joseph Byrnes <mbyrnes@leland.Stanford.EDU>
> 
> >Very well said, Kim.  The problem for the Celtics is that they must decide
> >*now* whether or not Antoine is going to mature into a franchise player.
> >If he is, they should sign him at "market value".  If not, they should
> >trade him or even let him walk.  But have they seen enough of Walker to
> >make the right decision?
> 
> If they haven't seen enough of Walker to make the right decision they should
> quit there job and watch the grass grow.
>                                                                 - Mishra

This is a good point, and was the reason for the rookie cap in the first
place.  What seems to be lost in all of the hullabaloo over teams having
to sign their young players is that it's an enormous improvement over
having to try and sign them before they even play a single game.  They've
seen Antoine for two years - that should be enough time to decide whether
or not to bet the farm on him.

I'm in favor of signing Antoine to pre-Garnett numbers.  I would argue
that Garnett got a signing bonus of sorts for staying at a franchise like
Minnesota - no disrespect to the area, but it's not first on the list of
NBA players of places they'd like to live.  Maybe I'm overrating the
Celtics history and Celtics pride, but I have to think Boston is more
desirable to play than Minnesota.

Anything above that and I think the C's should consider the alternatives.

Dan