RE: Globe on the trade and more

[John Lyell <Jlyell@concentric.net>]

I think before the trade we were 3 key milestones away from reaching the 
upper echelon:

1. Obtaining a true floor leader and penetrator at the point
2. Obtaining a defensive stopper in the middle
3. Getting consistent scoring from outside the help open up the inside game 
better.


Hopefully the Anderson trade has answered #1, may help at #3 as will a year 
or two of maturity and hard work of Mercer & Walker, and maybe McCarty. 
  Getting a defensive big man will be the hard one.  Declercq will improve, 
but probably will never be the defensive stopper that can box out a Shaq or 
Zo.  Is Austin or Geiger the answer ?  I am not sure they are, but next 
year will be interesting.


On Saturday, February 21, 1998 8:39 AM, Sashi Kumar 
[SMTP:kumarsas@duke.usask.ca] wrote:
>
> In todays Globe Michael Holley comments on the much debated trade
> of Billups ........ and honestly [even though I loved to keep
> Billups] it makes real sense. The Holley comments are that when
> Billups & Mercer becomes free agents at the same time [same year]
> there was no way for Pitino to satisfy both the contracts/deals.
> Now that they have Anderson for some 5 years, Pitino has to get
> Walker deal next year and then Mercer next year, much easier than
> 2 in the same year.
>
> Also the salary cap gain could not be ignored. And the fact that
> Anderson cannot be flawed for just one bad year [that is this season].
>
> Let us hope that the victory over Seattle was not a fluke but a
> glimpse of good days or years to come.
>
> 				Sashi
>
> PS : Even though I am not convinced, the CBS Sportsline expert
> Mike Kahn, ESPN's Worthy etc. think that Celts were real winners
> in this trade. Only Dave Alessandro of Sporting News thinks that
> Celts got the bad deal in this.......
>
> I hope in the long run Celts made a good deal [just like the
> Parish & DJ deals earlier in our glorier days !!]
>
>
>