Re: BskBall reporting possible Celtics Deal with Magic

[opi@unesco.org]

I agree with the judge. It's become so instinctive to bash Perv but the situation
has changed 180° now that his contract is expiring and he's healthy enough to be
a spot starter. If I were Orlando, I probably wouldn't give up more than a Derek
Strong but you never know there could be more to it than that (Outlaw & Pervis
with draft picks for example, not that Orlando needs any more picks). In
retrospect we should have taken Gatling off their hands this summer back when he
was valueless, or even Michael Smith.

Nice post by Chris Littlefield...hope it doesn't hurt his overall GPA. :-) As a
result of his and Noah's comments, I'll try to stop ranting about Antoine. It's
funny. Two years ago, people could say with a straight face that Antoine might
eventually lead the league in scoring (a la Iverson) or rebounding, and more
importantly that he was one of the few triple-double threats left in the
post-Magic&Bird NBA. But the revisionist historical view of Antoine will probably
describe a young player who put up gaudy stats on a truly awful, ugly
basketball-playing team (just as have so many others before him like a young Jim
Jackson, Ron Harper, Jamaal Mashburn etc). As soon as his team finally acquired
superior talent (like the IBL's immortal 6-5 journeyman Adrian Griffin), these
guys easily surpassed him in rebounding and assists, leading him to mature and
realize he was just a limited athlete pretty much embarrassing himself by playing
too far above his head.

Eventually Antoine may develop into another solid veteran piece of the puzzle on
a good team (as has happened with Jackson, Harper and Mashburn) although his
shooting and turnover stats suggest he'll never be quite that valuable. This BTW
is not at all the way I actually feel,  I just wouldn't have the energy to
dispute it anymore. Personally, I'm still waiting for the Rocky theme music to
start playing. It won't happen any more this year, but I still project a greater
player once Antoine puts it all together. I'm just bitter and realistic about the
fact that Toine clearly is not going to ever be the franchise player; MVP
candidate we need to compete at the championship level down the road. It is
myopic to assume it is possible to contend for championships with solid team
players and a great coach, or that the other talent on the Celts may actually be
good enough to contend (look around the league, folks, they emphatically are
not). If we are lucky enough to trade Antoine for a very accomplished veteran
role player, we will be a fifth to eighth playoff seed from now until eternity.

Joe

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Douglas342@aol.com wrote:

>    I don't claim the expertise you all have, but I don't understand this
> deal.  First, nothing was expected out of Pervis this year or ever.  He is
> giving us some very decent minutes at center and we're stuck with his salary
> this year, when it ends.  Strong is primarily a 4, where we have Fortson (he
> IS recovering from the stress fracture, right?), Battie and Walker as needed.
>  Maybe Strong plus 2d round pick does something. Where am I wrong?