No Subject

If only Bibby, Raef LaFrentz or Antawn Jamison had been available at
no.3!  If I were their economics professor, I’d have told them "who
needs education, baby, you can be a Celtic for the next 10 years!"


>>2) What do people think about Ron Mercer? From what I've seen, he
looks
>>like he could be very good someday (sooner rather than later)

IMO, in order to be a perennial All Star, Ron Mercer will need to
average somewhere between 13-15 assists+rebounds+steals per game (he
averages less than 7 combined right now). One-dimensional NBA scoring
machines come and go (Ron Harper, Harold Minor, Chuck and Wesley
Person). Even guys with "double-double" type stats (Shareef, Goog,
Iverson, Marbury, Webber, Howard, Rod Strickland,) don’t make the All
Star team on a regular basis.

As much as I love him, the only way I can imagine Ron Mercer making his
first All Star team is if:
1)  he can average 20ppg 5apg  6rpg  2spg (minimum);
2)  the celts can win 50+ games per year and be on national TV a lot;
3)  he can win a dunk contest or make a few shoe commercials.

I guess its possible. I think he’s a former High School Player of the
Year, and he definitely raises his level of leadership and play in
FinalFour-type games. My biggest fear is that Mercer is way too shy
about demanding the ball from his team mates. It is as though he doesn’t
enjoy the spotlight, not for fear of choking but because he prefers to
not make waves and just mind his own business.

>>3) Should the C's sign Walker if he asks for 100 million or more? It
seems
>>to me that they have to give him whatever he asks for or the franchise

>>will be right back where they were a couple years ago.

Informal Poll:
If forced to by circumstances, which NBA player would you trade AW
straight up for next summer?
{for fun, let’s pretend -within reason- that the other trading party
would agree}.

Personally, I would trade him only for Vin Baker, Shareef, Jayson
Williams or a top young center (Mourning or Howard). None of those guys
would cost much more than what re-signing AW will cost, thus leaving us
with the same cap room to sign an additional piece of the puzzle.

JoeHironaka
Paris

p.s. I don't know why some of you are pencilling in Popeye Jones as a
starter next year. For a guy who makes his living jumping for rebounds,
a torn ACL sounds to me like a career-ending-type injury. Are there any
medical experts out there who can tell us what Popeye's chances are of a
full recovery?

*****