Cheaney and Walker

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

I don't think that Cheaney makes Walker somehow expendable in any sense.
They are really not similar players at all, except that they can both
play small forward. It's kind of like saying, "Minnesota drafted Wally
Sczerbiak, a Kevin Garnett trade must be on the way!" An exception signing
just doesn't have that sort of meaning or impact.

In fact, Pitino said that they planned on going after Cheaney in the event 
of a Mercer trade, so you can think of him as a replacement for some of
Mercer's skills instead. And he does fit Pitino's halfcourt offense, in
that he can excel running around screens and sinking the 18 footer like
Mercer used to do. The difference is he'll do it for the second unit for
only $2M. My hope is that he becomes our version of Jim Jackson. (And
if he does, his trade value will definitely be high, as Jackson's now is)

By the way, Cheaney was incredibly efficient for a primarily jump shooting
player in college - 56% from the field. His career shooting percentage in
the pros is 46.4%. Just like Mercer, he has the drawback that he doesn't
really get to the line very much. I think he's a very solid addition to
the bench, and he'll probably play about 20 minutes per game and get a
relatively large number of shots.

The three year contract is the minimum length for his Bird rights to kick
in, but long enough to give both parties a chance to feel secure with 
each other. 

Alex