Re: Celtics rebuilding

[damekmo@teleport.com]

> also, the days of one-sided deals our way
>is gone. we should never had Len Bias for Henderson in the first place &
>picking up
>Parish & McHale at one time today without big $$ would be impossible.

I couldn't agree more. Some thoughts about trades after a review of the
morning papers. Chris Wallace says that at this time of year gm's are
looking to make "talent deals" as opposed to slary cap deals. I assume he
means that playoff caliber teams want talent to make a stronger run. Having
said that, I think the Celtics have to pray that they're the back end of a
three team swap because they just haven't got the proven talent to make a
good team better straight-up. In any case, I still think they have to
concentrate on their salary cap, so....playing Dee Brown as much as
possible is the way to go. Now...having said that...Peter Vecsey (I know, I
know) says that the Celtics continue to talk to teams about Billups and
that the latest has Billups and Brown going to the Wizrds for Cheaney and
God. God is a free agent after this year playing for the minimum, and
Cheaney is free in '99 as opposed to Brown in '00. It appears that the
Celtics get no real cap relief until '00. I think it's pretty clear from
everything Pitino's said about "creating value" that Knight and Declercq
are nothing but trade bait. Now if you're a gm, you're going to want to get
something positive out of a trade that includes Dee "a serious cap problem"
Brown. So,...if you had your choice, would you take Billups, Knight, or
Declercq along with Brown? I'm afraid Billups is going either before the
19th or sometime this summer. Brown and Barros need to go. It could be that
Billups = cap relief.
Cheaney and God for Billups and Brown?

Paul M