Re: Terrell Brandon to sign for 60 million

[Andy Shaw <shaw@transmeta.com>]

|   From: j.hironaka@unesco.org
|   Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 13:00:49 +0200
|   
|   The Timberpoodles reportedly will sign Terrell Brandon to a contract
|   through his 36th birthday for 6 years at 60 million dollars. The 5-11
|   point guard owns a career average of 13.1 ppg (13.9 ppg last year) and
|   5.4 assists, and will be backed up (presumably for the next 6 years) by
|   rookie William Avery.
|   
|   According to ESPN, Brandon will become the fourth highest paid point
|   guard in the NBA. I find this deal to be typically irresponsible of the
|   T-poodles. I wonder what poor Kevin McHale is going to say at the press
|   conference.

I have to respectfully disagree -- Terrell Brandon is one of the most
under-rated players in the league.  He has consistently played at a
high level throughout his career, and he is not a distraction to his
team like Iverson, Strickland, or Marbury are.

Here's a list of the top 10 point guards, ranked by Tendex for the
past four years.  In his rookie year (94-95) he played behind Mark
Price in Cleveland, which is nothing to be ashamed of.

Remember also that the the newest contracts are always the biggest, so
the fact that he is the 4th highest paid point guard does not mean
that he is valued as the 4th best point guard in the league.  If Gary
Payton is paid less, that's because he signed his contract 4 or 5
years ago.

The only two point guards I would rather have than Brandon are Kidd
and Payton.  Iverson, Marbury and Strickland are big headaches -- they
think they can do it themselves, but that's not their job.  Other
point guards are either too old (Stockton, Tim Hardaway, Mark Jackson)
or are over-rated (Stoudamire, Cassell, Van Exel, etc.) or don't
really have any talent (Darrell Armstrong, David Wesley, Avery
Johnson).

|   Derrick Anderson and Ron Mercer must be doing cartwheels.

At this point, Derrick Anderson and Ron Mercer are not even in the
same league as Terrell Brandon, and nothing indicates that they have
shown the potential to get to that level.  Plus, shooting guards are
much easier to find than point guards.

-Andy

              Point Guards (98-99)
               MyTendex     (min 30 games)
        Player             Team MyTend
  1) kidd,jason            Pho   27.24
  2) payton,gary           Sea   23.75
  3) strickland,rod        Was   21.32
  4) iverson,allen         Phi   20.84
  5) marbury,stephon       njn   20.65
  6) brandon,terrell       min   18.75	<-
  7) armstrong,darrel      Orl   17.69
  8) stockton,john         Uta   17.25
  9) hardaway,tim          Mia   17.07
 10) wesley,david          Cha   16.82

97-98
        Player             Team MyTend
  1) strickland,rod        Was   23.67
  2) payton,gary           Sea   23.14
  3) hardaway,tim          Mia   20.88
  4) iverson,allen         Phi   20.85
  5) kidd,jason            Pho   20.77
  6) brandon,terrell       Mil   20.23	<-
  7) cassell,sam           NJN   19.55
  8) stoudamire,damon      por   19.30
  9) stockton,john         Uta   18.79
 10) marbury,stephon       Min   18.01

96-97
        Player             Team MyTend
  1) johnson,kevin         Pho   25.58
  2) payton,gary           Sea   23.62
  3) stockton,john         Uta   23.57
  4) hardaway,tim          Mia   21.83
  5) strickland,rod        Was   21.51
  6) blaylock,mookie       Atl   21.14
  7) hardaway,anferne      Orl   21.05
  8) stoudamire,damon      Tor   20.94
  9) anderson,kenny        Por   20.47
 10) jackson,mark          ind   20.41
 ??) brandon,terrell       Cle   20.1	<-

95-96
        Player             Team MyTend
  1) jordan,michael        Chi   29.34
  2) hardaway,anferne      Orl   25.30
  3) johnson,kevin         Pho   24.70
  4) stockton,john         Uta   23.81
  5) payton,gary           Sea   22.40
  6) kidd,jason            Dal   22.04
  7) strickland,rod        Por   22.01
  8) brandon,terrell       Cle   21.89	<-
  9) stoudamire,damon      Tor   21.01
 10) johnson,avery         San   19.64
 

-Andy