Re: Pool/Trades

[damekmo@teleport.com]

>Just don't trade Mercer, please!

>TJL

You know, looking at this roster, I sometimes think the Celtics are in
serious trouble. Maybe it's the mood I'm in, how am I going to afford
college for my kids, I don't know....but when I think about what teams
might want from the Celtics, I keep coming up with Walker, Mercer, maybe
Billups, and that's it. I suppose they could trade one mediocre player
(Knight, Declercq, Thomas) for another, but the point is to get better. Am
I wrong to keep thinking that although everyone would love to get rid of
Barros and Brown, only an idiot would take their salaries? I think the team
is just stuck with those guys. And concerning an earlier post from Greg, I
think Mitch Lawrence is absolutely right. The Celtics can forget about
winning a championship through the draft. Given my mood I'm not about to go
looking at the players' salaries, but I'm going to bet that the salary cap
situation is pretty bleak for at least another couple of years. So, unless
I'm totally mistaken and just suffering from caffeine deprivation, it
appears that the Celtics are Antoine Walker, the imagined potential of
Mercer and Billups, and a bunch of career sixth men, through the year 2000.
Also, concerning an earlier post, Adam essentially asked whether the
Celtics were a mediocre team, or a bad team overachieving, and
unfortunately, I think it's the latter. They have, at this point, no
real/experienced lead guard, no center, no one who can hit an outside shot;
just Walker and....well I've already said it. Any team that shoots as badly
as the Celtics,  that plays as badly as they do in their half-court
offense, has no business being anywhere near .500. Adam, you're right, not
only do they have to play extremely hard every night in order to win, they
have to play extremely hard every night just to avoid getting beaten badly.
Up to this point they've given Pitino everything they can. I fully expect
the grind of 82 games to begin wearing on all the rookie starters.
Gene...I'd also like to know where Roy Rogers is and does Pitino actually
believe that any gm is going to take this guy in a trade? How about Dontae'
Jones? He's been on the bench for two years now. I'm going to guess he must
be pretty miserable. I'd ask if any of you guys thought Pitino was a
competent gm, but it would just be the miserable mood I was in asking the
question. Oh well....I'm going over to my human rights activist list now. I
need a good story and an emotional lift.

Paul M.