Re: FA money and draft

["Starke R. Farrell" <sfarrell@dixie-net.com>]

> I kind of agree with you ,but we were 1 of 2 in the draft, but the truth
> of the matter is that he took a team over that was significantly
> horrible, in fact if it wasn't for the Wesley/Fox combo, they probably
> would have had been the Denver of 1997(struggling to win 9 games i/o 15)
> but instead of trying to plug up a lot of holes, he dumped just about
> that whole bunch in the trash and started from scratch. On the whole he
> did alright but he arguably made 2 mistakes; Billups who almost every GM
> as well as most on this list thought he was a can't miss intead of just
> another ok player who was as it turned out should have been a #15-20
> pick in the draft and probably will turn out to be a decent backup in
> the mold of BJ Armstrong and Pooh Richardson. When you think about it
> how many point guards come directly out of college and make an impact
> and are above average(Magic and Isaah come to mind) without a couple of
> years of NBA playing time, Payton took almost 3 years and he is the best
> playing today. So, I for one will not fault him on this especially since
> we acquired Anderson for Billups.

All of the GM's were crazy about CB before the draft.  He didn't work out, but
was a sensible pick.  I do agree that we can't fault RP when he knew Billups
didn't work, and subsequently replaced him.

> His biggest mistake was the signing of Travis, who right now is the
> albatross around his neck, but go back in your memory, most of people on
> this list, were dancing in the street when he was signed. He is just an
> adequate backup nothing more, nothing less

Travis "party all" Knight was the apparent best "big" free agent available last
summer.  The C's had no reliable center so RP went out and signed one.  RP
knows Travis doesn't work , and we can look for a trade before the next season.

I think our expectations of Pitino to be omniscient regarding talent is
unrealistic.  Trades and acquisitions are a trial and error business.  Some
moves work and some don't.  One thing I like about Rick is the fact that when a
player doesn't fit, he moves him (very much unlike the ML regime).