Strange rumors

[Michael Joseph Byrnes <mbyrnes@leland.Stanford.EDU>]

The following rumors are going around:

	1) The Celtics want to sign Popeye Jones.

	2) Travis Knight will be traded for Tony Battie.

	3) The Celtics want to sign Michael Stewart.

*All* of these things can't happen.  With current personnel, the depth
chart looks like:

	 C - Knight, DeClerq
	PF - Walker
	SF - Pierce, McCarty, D.Jones
	SG - Mercer, Bowen, Minor
	PG - Anderson, Barros

Knight is the closet thing the Celtics have to a center.  If they were to
trade him for 6'9" Denver disappointment Battie, that would leave them
without a center.

Signing Popeye Jones doesn't even make a whole lot of sense.  When and
where is he going to play.  Antoine Walker ought to get about 36 minutes
per game, and almost all of that will be at power forward.  (With Pierce,
Mercer, McCarty, and Bowen at SF/SG, there won't be many minutes at that
position for Antoine.

Signing Michael Stewart makes a bit more sense, in that he is at least a
center with the athleticism to fit the Celtics' system.  On the other
hand, he doesn't have the height, nor does he have much in the way of
offensive skills.  On the whole, though, he might be a good addition to
the Celtics.  

If the Celtics did sign Stewart, then the Knight-for-Battie deal would
make slightly more sense.  However, I think that they would be better off
keeping Travis.  At least Travis is 7 feet tall, and has a good finesse
game.  I think Pitino would be making a mistake to give up on him too
quickly.  With Walker and Stewart starting, I think that Knight and
DeClerq would be a good pair of backups.  That would leave the 2
and 3 spots to Pierce, Mercer, McCarty, and Bowen (and even Dontae and
Minor if the Celtics have a big lead).

Michael Byrnes
mbyrnes@stanford.edu