CBS Sportsline Ryan article

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Here's an interesting look at the Celtics' situation by Bob Ryan.

--
BOSTON -- Antoine Walker. Ron Mercer. Kenny Anderson. And now Paul Pierce. 
Rick Pitino made it sound very enticing and exciting on Wednesday night. 

Absolutely. It is exciting. But it might also be a fantasy. 

It's often no fun rooting for any team in the NBA these days, and the 
Boston Celtics are Exhibit A. How can any fan get pumped up over the team 
when there is no guarantee any of these players in question will be here 
next year, let alone at the start of the 1999-2000 season? It's a potentially
great nucleus -- on paper -- but only there. 

The Antoine Walker thing is a huge black cloud hovering over the Fleet Center. 
At this moment his future as a Boston Celtic is in doubt, or we assume it's in 
doubt if he and agent David Falk weigh in with a long-term contract demand in 
excess of $100 million, as everyone, including Rick Pitino himself, assumes they 
will. There are two central questions. One, will owner Paul Gaston pay it? 
Two, should he pay it? 

WALKER IS VERY talented. He is a 6-foot-8 scoring machine who can operate 
from inside and out. He is a great finisher on the fast break. He can 
make dazzling passes. He rebounds every night, even on those occasions 
when he shoots 3-for-18. He plays with enthusiasm and energy. He can 
make chicken salad out of chicken excrement. He gets the crowd in the game.
He won't be 22 until August. 

That's a lot of plusses. 

Walker is a spotty defensive player. He has a horrendous sense of shot 
selection. He tries to handle the ball too much in traffic. He is very 
turnover-prone. He pouts on occasion when he comes out of the game. 
He has a sophomoric demeanor, going into excessive celebrations over
virtually every act on the court, so much so that he thoroughly 
antagonizes opponents. He acts, in other words, like an MTV punk. 
He doesn't seem to think he needs much improvement. 

Those are serious negatives. 

This wouldn't even be a current issue if the NBA's three-year plan for 
rookies weren't in effect. The coming season is number three. Walker 
can be a free agent at the end of the season. Some team might very well 
decide he's worth the money, although no one can out-bid the Celtics if
they choose to re-sign him. In a better world, Walker would be guaranteed 
Celtics' property for at least a few more years. 

LOVE HIM OR hate him or merely be skeptical of him, he is a great talent 
and there aren't many comparable players his age in the league. In
theory, he will grow and mature and smooth out those rough edges. In theory. 
If this particular young man is handed a guaranteed $100 million dollars, 
he might take that as a validation of his entire act and never strive to change 
or improve. 

In the abstract, you'd rather have him than not have him. I would, anyway. But 
I'd rather have him, at a less threatening, less exorbitant rate. I suspect that 
will be the Celtics' conclusion, as well. In that case, they must attempt to trade 
him before the next season starts. But trade him for what? I have no idea. 

Part B in all this is that we will be going through the same sign or say goodbye 
scenario next season with Mercer. This will be even worse because in his case 
there will be no lack of suitors, given that the Walker negatives do not exist in
Ron Mercer. In some ways, he is the anti-Walker, the quiet kid who drinks his 
milk to the bottom of the glass and looks both ways before crossing. 

Mercer has things he needs to work on, but we can assume that, unlike Walker, 
he'll work on them. Perhaps there is nothing to worry about. Perhaps Mercer will 
be so comfortable here he won't even think about leaving. Perhaps.
Experience tells me not to count on it. 

IN A FAR BETTER NBA world, the nucleus of the 27-year old Anderson, the 22 
(when the season starts)-year old Walker, the 22-year old Mercer and the 21-year 
old Pierce could grow and mature together as a unit. But we don't live in 
that world. We live in a real world of constant NBA movement. The truth is 
we don't know what will happen or how many of them will be here next 
season. 

Pitino will always reserve the right to be flexible, and he might even 
be thinking about moving one of them right now. But that would come under 
the heading of trying to bolster the ballclub. Mercer and Pierce have 
enormous trade value already. Suppose Pitino can get a stabilizing
veteran (someone not quite ready to draw Social Security) for either 
the aforementioned? 

Pitino might reason that these players are so similar in style he 
can afford to sacrifice one in order to diversify the overall portfolio. 
That would be OK. That's doing things the old-fashioned way. 

I would love to get excited about this quartet as a quartet, but I just 
can't. Not yet. What the modern NBA has done is force a one-day-at-a-time 
approach on me. 

That's no fun. But that's the way it is. 

Bob Ryan is a sports columnist for The Boston Globe.