RE: Moves

[John Lyell <Jlyell@concentric.net>]

I think Jones will be moved after he is signed which seems to be the current trend.


On Tuesday, January 19, 1999 12:03 PM, peter delevett [SMTP:pdelevett@amcity.com] wrote:
> I'm pleased to see that we signed Popeye, even though I agree it virtually
> guarantees we won't be signing Stewart (unless, as Warwick theorized, there is
> some sort of sign-and-trade afoot). Perhaps Pitino worried he wouldn't be able
> to outbid Toronto. All things being equal, I think I would rather have had
> Stewart on the team than Popeye, given his height and shotblocking, but make
> no mistake: Popeye will make us better. He is a tough rebounder and a good
> post defender despite his size. Adding him and Pierce (with a full season of
> Kenny) will help us win more games.
> 
> We still have a gaping hole at center, but if you really think about it, the
> Travis trade didn't hurt us much here. (Yes, I am backing off my earlier
> criticism of this move.)  We lost our only 7 footer but gained a big man
> (Battie) who's more athletic and about an equal rebounder and shotblocker. In
> the best of all worlds, Battie really is close to 6'11 and will be able to
> provide decent minutes at center (remember that by the end of last season,
> Travis was only a backup anyway). The worst case scenario is that Battie WON'T
> be able to play the 5, in which case Walker will have to slide to the 3 to
> give Battie & Jones playing time. In this scenario, I would look for us to
> trade Pierce, hopefully for a decent big man (I would, say, take Potapenko if
> there were other goodies thrown in; he is 6'10, 280 and last year scored more
> than 7 ppg in just 17 minutes, although his rebounding numbers are
> frighteningly low and his shotblocking is nonexistent -- Jones and Battie
> would help out there). In fact, Pitino might already have this scenario in
> mind. As I said before, don't look for Pierce in green; however, I will
> continue to hold out hope. If it comes down to it, I'd rather try to trade
> Battie (or Popeye) for a journeyman center. Big 4 + Popeye + decent center +
> our bench = playoffs.
> 
> Keep Pierce!