Re: Walker trade

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

I don't feel that I have seen enough of Rasheed Wallace to make a 
judgement about the merits of a trade for him.  I did want to weigh in 
on Antoine's skills, though, particularly his rebounding.  I think it is 
amazing that any Celtic fan could question his rebounding skills.  He 
is, perhaps, the best rebounding forward who is also an offensive 
player.  By that I mean ignore the Rodmans and Oakleys of the world.  
Doing it on a team that is weak in rebounding is more impressive in my 
mind, because he will more often have to fight 2 or 3 players for the 
ball.  Where his stats may be inflated is in that he gets a lot of easy 
follow up rebounds of his own missed shots.

The post below says he'd get stuffed playing the 4 spot.  Well he did 
that all last season, and I don't remember him getting stuffed.  I've 
said before, Antoine's greatest gift is his versatility.  That was what 
made Larry Bird a great player.  Right now Antoine might be 50% as 
versatile as Larry, making him 50% as good.  And, let me tell you, in 
today's NBA that ain't bad.

This is a case where being a "tweener" is a good thing.  He will be on 
the floor a lot.  He will have to play 4 with Pierce and 3 with Popeye.  
He will take small defenders down low and use his speed against large 
ones.  He is exactly the sort of player that you can build a team 
around.  The only question is if he will sign for an amount that allows 
to Celtics to do just that.

Jim

>From: DJessen33@aol.com
>Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 07:10:29 EDT
>To: ishbak@conknet.com
>Cc: celtics@igtc.com
>Subject: Re: Walker trade
>
>First of all, I again would like to say that I'm not saying we have 
make the
>trade of Walker for Wallace etc, but rather it is worthy of discussion, 
just
>as Walker for Jordan would be worthy of discussion (not that Wallace is 
as
>good as Jordan for you nitpickers). 
>Second, I submit that Walker's rebounding stats are inflated since 
there was
>really no one else on the team who could rebound. You have to agree 
that if we
>had a Rodman or Oakley or Shaq on the team that Walker would rebound 
less. 
>Third, Walker really doesn't have the height, bulk or hops to be 
dominate
>offensively in the 4 spot. When matched against the prototypical power 
forward
>in the post, he would get stuffed because of it.
>Fourth, when Walker was at his best, it was when he was matched against 
the
>prototypical 4 and he took him outside and then dribbled around him. 
This tool
>will only be consistantly available as long as Walker's outside shot is
>falling which will draw the defensive player out. However, who will 
rebound if
>your power forward is playing outside?
>In summary, I think that Wallace has the best physical skills (better
>shotblocker, rebounder, post game) that will make him the best 
prototypical
>power forward. I grant that there aren't many players that have the
>inside/outside and dribbling game of Walker, but hopefully your small 
forward
>will fill in these areas.
>
>DJessen33
>


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