lockout thoughts

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

1) The Celtics have to be one of the teams that was hurt the most by
the low ($30M) cap. In general, any team that was below the cap was 
hurt pretty badly but the Celtics are in a particularly bad situation 
where they won't be able to take advantage of the higher cap next year
because of Walker's contract.

2) I vaguely remember Potapenko beating up the Celtics' "centers" last
year. Pierce for Potapenko straight up seems ridiculous to me, given
what Potapenko has shown so far. Pierce and DeClercq for Mashburn for 
Potapenko doesn't seem to work salary-wise. 

3) There seems to be some sort of list obsession with getting another
backup/3rd string point guard. We already have around $10M invested
in the point guard position with Anderson and Barros. I imagine that
Pitino will pick up some CBA guy or a veteran to play for the minimum
and sit on the injured list until Anderson gets hurt.

4) I feel comfortable with the idea of piling up young, athletic players
at the 4/5 spot since it's obvious by Geiger and Ratliff's contracts 
that picking up a center in free agency will be tough. Perhaps one of
them will develop nicely, and if not, they are cheap and easy to move.

Alex