TSN: Fan's View: C's Will Regret Trading Mercer

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

      The Sporting News - http://www.sportingnews.com

      Celtics' future is now in Denver
      AUGUST 11, 1999      Print it! 

      Fans' View


            ROBERT SEALE/TSN
            The Celtics will regret trading Ron Mercer.

      You want to be heard? Well, now you can! Throughout the week, we let 
      readers speak out as guest columnists. Want to get something off your 
      chest? Put it in writing and send it to us. Be sure to put "Fans' View" in 
      the subject heading. 
      Today, sports fan Chad Bianchi takes a critical look at the Celtics and 
      some of their questionable offseason moves. 
      If you want to see a modern sports travesty, just check out the remnants 
      of what could have been the new mighty Celtics. Of course, most of them 
      can now be found in Denver, so you might as well check there first. Ron 
      Mercer and Chauncey Billups were supposed to be the backcourt of the 
      future for Boston. That is before the notably impatient and inexperienced 
      GM known as "Trader Rick" took over. 
      Trading Billups halfway through his rookie season was a major catastrophe 
      for Boston. Although the die-hard, win-now fans were pleased to get an 
      experienced point guard in Kenny Anderson, it was apparent he would never 
      make it in the Pitino system. 
      Anderson is not only too slow, too small, too fragile and too selfish, he 
      has a gigantic contract considering his meager remaining skills. The only 
      way he resembles the player who starred for the Nets is in the way the 
      ball ceases to move when he is on the court. Boston was actually a much 
      better team when Anderson was hurt because the Celtics learned that the 
      Pitino system doesn't require a true point as long as the ball moves 
      freely. 
      But Boston is stuck with Anderson and his contract. This made it 
      impossible to pay the money necessary to keep Mercer. So Mercer and 
      Billups are in Denver, and Boston is faltering. Mercer was a 
      heart-and-soul player who left it all on the court, a perfect complement 
      to the newly added Paul Pierce and a good influence on the notoriously 
      under-dedicated Antoine Walker. Now, the Celtics will again be lacking 
      heart as well as skill. 
      Mercer was the one player Boston fans could count on to play hard all the 
      time. Pierce is good -- he played exceptionally for a rookie -- but he 
      also dominated the game in stints rather than from tip to buzzer. Walker 
      will dominate for very short stretches despite his mammoth talent. 
      In fact, a common league opinion is that should Walker get serious about 
      his game and his conditioning, he could dominate games in the vein of 
      Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. Unfortunately, such a desire has yet to 
      appear. 
      Mercer, on the other hand, has shown a greater devotion to staying in 
      shape and on top of his game. At the end of the lockout, he was the only 
      Celtic to declare he was in incredible shape -- quite a risk given 
      Pitino's rigorous practices and expectations. Even Pitino still believes 
      Mercer will be a star. It just will not be in Boston because there 
      supposedly was no money to sign him. 
      If Pitino, who should give up his power to trade players because of his 
      quick temper and gambler's mentality, merely had the patience to grow with 
      his backcourt of the future, the Celtics would be in far better shape. 
      At a time when Eastern Conference powers are redesigning themselves for 
      the future (Atlanta, Orlando, Indiana), the Celtics should be ahead of the 
      game with a strong nucleus of players. Instead, they are again behind the 
      pack, behind the Knicks and even farther behind the 76ers. 
      Finally, consider this: Pitino could have fielded a team this year that 
      started Billups, Mercer, Walker, Pierce and whomever he could dig up at 
      center. With the NBA changing its rules back to a more '80s oriented, no 
      contact on the perimeter style, would you want to have to guard this team? 



       
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