My $.02

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

If people can tolerate one more Antoine-related post, let me just offer up a
pertinent example from the Bay Area. Less than a year ago, Owen Nolan of the
San Jose Sharks was considered toast. He'd gone from a 40-game scorer with
Colorado to totals of 19 and 14 in the past two years. Everybody (me included)
was saying trade the guy while he still has value. But this season--in part
because of the addition of a playmaker on his line, in part because of Nolan's
own maturation--he's leading the league in scoring. He's not quite 28 years
old and is a lock for the All Star team. Oh, by the way, the Sharks are off to
their best record ever.

Will Antoine achieve the same results? Who knows? But who knows whether any of
the other marginal talents the team might get in exchange for him could do
better. Lest we forget, if Celtics fans are clamoring to dump Antoine because
his game has headed south, opposing GMs have noticed it too.

Yes, this is Antoine's 4th year in the league, so I certainly expected to see
greater maturity and shooting %. I don't see enough games to know if his FG%
is still primarily a function of taking stupid shots or if he'd taking better
shots that don't go in and/or get blocked. Judging from what I read from those
who do watch the game, it's the latter. The same seems to be true of his
turnovers. 

He might never duplicate the stats from his second year, when he was the best
player on a very undertalented team (which for most of the season really only
had 1 other quality NBA player, Ron Mercer). But the team might not need him
to do that if he can help in other ways, and certainly he has the tools to do
that (and, at times at least in this young season, has put those tools to use).

Sports Guy's first-hand observation of Walker's behavior toward the heckler
was disturbing, no matter how loutish the heckler might have been. On the
other hand, nobody seems to deserve the vilification some "fans" continue to
heap on Walker. That can't make him play better, and what's the point of that?
If he plays better, the team can have the option of trading him for someone
really good. Right now, with the team above .500 despite no Fortson and with
other players putting up below-average stats, I see no reason to rush to judgement.

The guy has room for improvement, both in things like post moves and in the
way he carries himself on the court. But at 23 years old, I can't help but see
better times ahead for him.