our new (potential) team

[Peter.Toner@anu.edu.au (Peter G. Toner)]

Just thought I'd stop lurking and give my $0.02 worth about all these real
and potential deals, trades, and signings. I don't think it's possible
cap-wise to end up with all of the players mentioned over the past few
days. Stewart looks as though he'll sign elsewhere, and if he does I think
Pitino will pick up Schintzius. I've always thought he was a thug, but he
is a BIG thug, and you can't teach height. I think Travis for Battie is
fine - Travis isn't all that bad, he's just not right for the Celtics. I
think Popeye would be great, I hope he stays. So, at the end of it all, we
could use all these guys to create effective "big" and "small" lineups:

Big:

C - Schintzius
PF - Battie or Popeye
SF - Walker
SG - Mercer or Pierce
PG - Anderson (I know he's not big - maybe Mercer could do some temp duty?)

Small (and quick!):

C - Battie
PF - Walker
SF - Pierce
SG - Mercer
PG - Anderson

This kind of arrangement would let Pitino use Walker for his different
strengths depending on the opposing team's lineups - his quickness against
power forwards, or his strength against small forwards.

BTW, I can't remember who it was that dubbed Travis "Banana Boy" so
appropriately last season. But I came across the reference: Kurt Vonnegut
used the phrase in "Breakfast of Champions", and said it originally came
from Teddy Roosevelt, who said "I could carve a better man out of a
banana."

Cheers,

Pete