trade for a big man

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

First of all, Mercer as a 6th man? This is a really... 
unusual... idea. Somehow I doubt that Mercer would be 
thrilled with the idea of taking less money to come off 
the bench, especially since other teams would be happy 
to pay him more to start. 

Originally Pitino intended for Walker to play small forward,
and only put him at power forward when he realized that no
one else could play there. He's been hoping for Walker to 
grow into Karl Malone but that doesn't seem to be happening.

Now, I think that Walker could be moved and become an effective
inside small forward, in the way that Shareef is, except that he 
could perhaps be more flexible. At that point I would ask, would
you rather have Mercer or Pierce at shooting guard? Honestly, 
I'd have to say that Pierce seems better in just about every
respect except aesthetics. 

If Walker is to be moved to small forward, it doesn't make sense
to have three top players at two positions when the Celtics are
so weak at power forward and center. That's why Pitino would want
to make a trade, and why it probably won't be Anderson, who'd
be the least desirable of the bunch anyways. And I don't think 
anybody else on the team can realistically be expected to bring 
a starting quality big man.

So I can't really guess who would be traded. I'd say that probably,
Walker is the most valuable, closely followed by Pierce, and then
Mercer. Who gets traded depends on who it'll take to get that
legitimate big man. My guess is that it will be for an older player,
around 28-30.

Alex