Pivot possibilities

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

I have to laugh at this Schintzius talk. The only reason the guy isn't past
his prime (he was a senior at Florida in 1990, the same year Dee Brown came
out of Jacksonville, meaning he's got to be at least 31) is that he never HAD
a prime. Besides being lazy, don't forget that he had a chronically bad back.
No thank you. It may be worth working him out, but I would have to be
convinced he's worth using the $1 million exception (which would be the only
way we could sign him unless we can cut Dontae -- and at this point I'd be
inclined to find other uses for the exception, like say Eric Murdock or Dell
Curry, who would make Dana more expendable).

However, this report that Orlando may be looking to trade Keon Clark seems to
have legs -- Sporting News is reporting that they're trying to interest Denver
in Clark and Johnny Taylor for Denver's #1 pick, in an effort to clear cap
space for Ike Austin. To get in on this, we would have to work a three-way
trade, as we have no cap room to accommodate Clark & Taylor. But considering
how enamored Chris Wallace seemed of Clark ("You would have paid to see" his
workout with the Celtics, Wallace said around draft time), I wouldn't mind
seeing them make a stab at this. Clark is too thin to be a low-post banger,
but I'll bet he'll block more shots than Battie, and since Michael Stewart
seems to have priced himself out of our reach, maybe Clark would be a good
fit. Taylor has been a stiff with Orlando, but he seems athletic enough to
play in Pitino's system. To make this work, we would have to move
Battie/Popeye and maybe Barros.

Jeremy, I like your Popeye-for-Potapenko idea, if only to add legitimate size
in the pivot. Then again, considering how good Popeye is on the boards, we
might wanna keep him. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Battie really is
6'11 and that Shaun Brown can beef him up (he's already put on 10 pounds since
getting drafted last year). If he's really even 6'10, 240, he's about the same
size as Stewart, meaning that we're not giving up too much there. Battie is a
much better scorer -- Stewart only scores on garbage & put backs, Battie can
shoot it from 10 or 12 feet and is, I believe, a decent low-post scorer. Given
the number of scorers we already have, I'd really prefer to have Stewart's
rebounding and shot-blocking, but I do know that one of our shortcomings last
year was scoring from the post. Now, in addition to Antoine, we'll have two
more players -- Battie & Jones -- who can get it done inside. Bottom line: if
we're playing a center-by-committee again, at least it will be a more
qualified committee!