Trade ironies

[clittlefield@lycos.com]

First and foremost, I like this trade. A lot!  Mercer will do well in Denver,
but getting Fortson, Williams (cross-fingers), _and_ the first-rounder is great.
Given the Samaki talk (and we could still bring him for insurance) of last week,
this is more than I could have/would have hoped for.

If this team stays together as currently comprised, and is healthy, the playoffs
are, all of a sudden, a much more realistic possibility.  This team is, on
paper, deeper, bigger, and more versatile, with the future upside of the draft
pick.

How well do you think a LaFrentz/McDyess/Mercer/Billups/Van Exel team is going
to fare out west, with bench support from Posey/Popeye/Alexander/Schintzius?  It
could be good, but it's undersized and thin.

Conversely, the C's will, as of this writing, be fielding a
Potapenko/Fortson/Walker/Pierce/Anderson team, backed up by
Battie/Williams/Griffin/Barros.


On the ironic side, a couple things:

1)  Billups and Mercer will be reunited, theoretically with Ron at the 3 and
Chauncey at the 2.  I wonder if that will work.

2) Williams, Fortson, and Washington will be reunited with Battie, with whom
they shared Denver's 11-win season two years ago.  Yikes!  I hope the fact that
they were all on that team isn't an omen of things to come.  I don't think so,
but it is a little weird.  That team was also riddled with internal strife,
though what I heard was that it was the oldsters versus the rooks, and that the
individual sides got along well within themselves.



Please keep Walker/resign Battie and Fortson!!!!!

One last cheery note.  The last 19 games of this past season, he _averaged_
nearly 16 points, 14 rebounds/ game.  Gee, that's not too bad.

In terms of minutes at the 4-5 spots, My bet is that Battie will back up both
spots, with all three probably getting between 30-35 minutes/game.  Walker can
obviously do spot duty at the 4in case of foul trouble (which I bet will be
frequent with all three of them) and Pierce can swing over to the 3 as well.
They need one more body, and maybe Smacky will be that bod.

All that said and done, I don't think Slick Rick's done.  I hope he doesn't undo
all the good work here with some boneheaded sign and trade deal for Baker.


Chris Littlefield