Re: Walker over Mercer

["Cecil Wright" <cecil@hfx.andara.com>]

The fact which is being disregarded though is that you are comparing
Mercer's stats with players who have more professional experience than does
he.  When you take that into consideration, Mercer's stats are fine.  He
didn't take the 3 point attempt too much but I'll bet that changes this year
should the season begin.

Drawing a comparison to Drexler, Richmond, Kittles and Allen is proof that
Mercer will be a great player.  Let's hope it's here with us.

Answer this question: Who would you rather have at the line with 2 seconds
on the clock and the C's losing by a bucket.  Our all-star or our rookie?

Cecil

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Shaw <shaw@transmeta.com>
To: Celtics@igtc.com <Celtics@igtc.com>
Date: Thursday, September 10, 1998 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: Walker over Mercer


>|   Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 11:09:16 +1000
>|   From: Warwick <giants@eisa.net.au>
>|
>|   MH348@aol.com wrote:
>|   > Ron Mercer will never be a better player then Antoine Walker. He
wasn't in
>|   > college and won't be in the pros. Instead of trading the "ALL STAR"
on the
>|   > team maybe they should trade Mercer while he is still a hot
commodity.
>|
>|   Mercer has a bigger brain and less ego than Walker. if they traded
Mercer,
>|   they could kiss goodbye to any championship aspirations this team ever
had.
>
>_I_ have a bigger brain and less ego than Walker, but I have zero
>impact on the Celtics' "championship aspirations", other than my own
>warm feelings towards the team.
>
>Mercer is a nice player, very smooth, and if we're lucky, he'll become
>a TOP 5 shooting guard, kind of with the same potential as Kerry
>Kittles or Ray Allen.  But he's a shooting guard, and besides Michael
>Jordan, when has a shooting guard led his team to the championship?
>There's no way Ron is at the same level as Jordan.
>
>If we're very, very lucky, he'll become as good as Clyde Drexler or
>Mitch Richmond, neither of whom I think has the stuff to _lead_ his
>team to a championship.  Even then, there's a huge gap between what
>Mercer and his fellow young 2-guards are now, and where they have to
>go to get to that level.
>
>Here are last season's stats:
>
>   Player           Pos  G M/Gm  FGm  FGa  PCT  3m  3a  PCT  FTm  FTA  PCT
AVG
> 1 drexler,clyde     SG 70 35.3  452 1059 .427 106 334 .317  277  346 .801
18.4
> 1 richmond,mitch    SG 70 36.8  543 1220 .445 130 334 .389  407  471 .864
23.2
> 3 kittles,kerry     SG 77 36.5  508 1154 .440 110 263 .418  202  250 .808
17.2
> 2 allen,ray         SG 82 40.1  563 1316 .428 134 367 .365  342  391 .875
19.5
> 2 mercer,ron        SF 80 33.3  515 1145 .450   3  28 .107  188  224 .839
15.3
>
>   Player             AS AS/g  ST ST/G  TO TO/g  BK BK/g  TND  OR OR/g  TR
TR/g
> 1 drexler,clyde     382  5.5 126  1.8 189  2.7  42  0.6 19.0 105 1.5  346
4.9
> 1 richmond,mitch    279  4.0  88  1.3 181  2.6  15  0.2 18.7  50 0.7  229
3.3
> 3 kittles,kerry     176  2.3 132  1.7 106  1.4  37  0.5 16.0 132 1.7  362
4.7
> 2 allen,ray         355  4.3 110  1.3 262  3.2  12  0.1 16.7 127 1.5  404
4.9
> 2 mercer,ron        176  2.2 125  1.6 132  1.6  17  0.2 12.2 109 1.4  280
3.5
>
>Note that Ron doesn't really rebound at the same level as Kittles or
>Allen, nor does he shoot the 3.  In addition, he's not really a
>ball-handler, nor does he really take it to the hole enough.
>
>Ron is a nice kid, has potential, but he's probably the 2nd or 3rd
>piece of the puzzle.  Walker is The Man.
>
>-Andy
>