Hardaway, Camby

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Hardaway would be a great addition of course, but I imagine we would
have to give up Billups and Mercer and a draft pick at the very least.
As for whether he would play 1 or 2 - it's not a question of which one
he can do (clearly both) but which one the team needs. Orlando has a 
lack of scorers; to fully exploit him they need Hardaway to put up 30
points a game. The Celtics have Walker and would move him back to point.
As for not wanting Hardaway because we have Mercer? I like Mercer a lot
but this is crazy. Those that are proclaiming perennial future All-Star 
for Mercer are premature whereas Hardaway is already 2-time All-NBA. 

With Camby, the trade for him only makes sense to me in the context of also
getting draft picks, preferably Orlando's Golden State pick. It could
be that Pitino believes Camby will fulfill his potential (and stop his 
problem behavior) under his autocratic coaching. At the very least he
could probably be a Travis Knight deluxe version and who knows what he
could do if he put on 30 pounds of muscle and got his head set straight.
A bonus to him being a bust this year is that he can probably be signed
for relatively little. 

The Celtics are probably going to need an above-average center to win
a championship. Yes, the Bulls won using "center-by-committee" for the
first few championships but having Jordan and Pippen is a unique situation.
Trading for a proven center requires giving up a lot, and drafting and 
developing a good one is tough unless you have a high, high pick. So 
taking a gamble on someone like Camby is not totally outrageous. Drafting
a passing point guard for Pitino's style would be easier at the draft
position that the Celtics, or Orlando, would have.

Alex