Re: Vitaly's Summer Vacation -Reply -Reply

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

The big surprise for Cleveland is that the Celtics will likely give them a higher
draft pick then they probably anticipated. The big surprise for Boston (and
probably Cleveland, too) is that Vitaly signed for a lot less than the established
market value (Matt Geiger).

Both teams lucked out. Cleveland just happened to be talent rich at center and we
just happened to have an incredibly desperate need for a true center (much greater
and harder to accomplish than our need to find a point guard, IMO). That's why we
seriously debated trading Paul Pierce for one of the Cleveland centers.  It was a
"win win" thing, even if the Cavs will get a very good scorer out of the deal (say
Rip Hamilton) or an even better point than Brevin Knight.

You're right, though, that his is not THAT weak a draft. With any luck, you could
get the last of the five great pointguards (Baron Davis, Jason Terry, Will Avery,
Steve Francis and Andre Miller) without even owning a lottery pick. There are a
lot of very athletic 6-5 guys in the top 40 picks. There are even some valuable
potential point guards available later (Kris Clack and Ricky Moore). I'm
disappointed to read that Lari Ketner only measured 6-8 1/2 in his socks.

----

Ryan Falcone wrote:

> I think that given Cleveland's likely inability to sign Potapenko after this
> season, DeClerq plus a top ten pick was worth considerably more to the
> Cavs than Potapenko is worth to the Celtics.
>
> Again, my point was not to judge the trade as a function of Vitaly's skills
> versus Andrew's hustle; the point is that when our Celtics give up what
> will likely be the #8 pick in the draft, and the Cav's snatch up William
> Avery or Baron Davis while we continue to bemoan Kenny Anderson's
> inability to make teammates better (borrowed from a recent list
> thread)--then yeah, the price tag for Potapenko might be awfully steep.