RE: The Boston Celtics Mailing List Digest V6 #58

[Daniel Pelletier <dlp@philabs.research.philips.com>]

Early observations from a Celts fan stuck in New York:

1.	Oh, please, already with the "Let's trade Anderson and Mercer"
and "Pierce is the second coming."  Two games.  Mercer's hurt.  Anderson
and Mercer were two of the primary reasons to be excited about this team
before the season started and they still are.  Pierce is looking like
somebody we can REALLY get excited about, but he is a rookie and
undoubtedly will be taken to school early and often this season by other
veteran stars.  When that happens, will there suddenly be calls to trade
him?  

2.	Win prediction and playoff possibilities.  I know I'm late on
this, but I'm predicting 30 wins.  But beyond that, I'm predicting that
the Knicks, who have been anointed as championship contenders because
they have been in the past and because they've added the "fabulously
talented" Sprewell, will be the team that the Celtics replace as yearly
Eastern division contenders.  From what I have seen of Sprewell, he is
the most overrated ballplayer I've ever seen.  Every article either
cursing the Knicks or praising them says that he's one of the best two
guards in the NBA.  Not from what I've seen.  I would describe him to
date as Walter McCarty with a slightly better jump shot, and only
slightly.   So, Sprewell is my prediction for bust of the year.  The
Knicks self-destruct because Spre thinks he should get the ball more and
the rest of the Knicks start to hate this guy and Patrick Ewing gets
hurt (no surprise there) and the Knicks miss the playoffs.

3.	The future of this team last year was Anderson, Walker and
Mercer.  They didn't get to play together all that much last year, but
when they did, they looked very good.  The addition of Pierce to that
lineup makes this a very exciting time to be a Celts fan.  But look for
it to take a little time for them to figure out how to make it all work.
But once they do, the rest of the league is going to be in big trouble.

Dan