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Holley: July Is Celtics Free Agent Month
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
NBA DRAFT
Celtics will use July as a time for
talking
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 07/01/99
WALTHAM - The
Celtics now can
tell all their friends
that they had an
interesting end-of-June
experience. It was just
a couple of nights ago
that they received a
call from the Hawks,
who were checking to
see if there was any
interest in Mookie Blaylock. The belief in
Atlanta was that the 31-year-old point
guard had gotten old suddenly and needed
to be moved. He was eventually traded to
the Warriors.
And that wasn't the only call. If the
Celtics had their caller ID in effect the
last few days, their monitor would have
shown calls coming in from the 503
(Portland, Ore.) and 317 (Indianapolis)
area codes. The names of both Davises -
Antonio and Dale - were mentioned a few
times during conversations with the
Pacers. But Antonio was traded to Toronto
yesterday and, sources said, the Boston
staff was split on the effectiveness of
Dale.
That was June. Now that it is July 1, the
Celtics shift into a different type of
phone game. According to the rules of the
new collective bargaining agreement, teams
can spend the next 30 days talking with
free agents. They can talk about favorite
movies, favorite foods, and favorite
contracts. But they cannot make anything
official until Aug. 1. That's the date
when all trades and signings become
legitimate.
Since the Celtics didn't make a trade for
picks during last night's draft, it is
obvious that their focus is on the next
month. It may be the most important month
the team has had since June 1997, when it
drafted the first two players (Chauncey
Billups, Ron Mercer) of the Rick Pitino
Era.
When they look at their Eastern Conference
lottery neighbors, the Celtics see teams
that used the draft to improve themselves.
The Raptors got another rebounding
veteran. The Cavaliers strengthened their
backcourt. The Hornets added a dynamic
young point guard. The Celtics? They
watched the Cavs draft Utah point guard
Andre Miller with the No. 8 pick, the pick
Boston traded to Cleveland for Vitaly
Potapenko. All the personnel types who
were in the team's ''war room'' here last
night know that some changes have to be
made. They were not made last night; they
most likely will be made in the next
month.
For that reason, one of the most well-read
documents in the Celtics offices this
summer will be an 11-page printout. On it,
the NBA's free agents for the next several
seasons are listed in alphabetical order.
You can be sure the Celtics have starred
some names and crossed out others. The
Celtics still could trade Mercer, but most
of the players who improve the team will
come from that 11-page list.
Vin Baker, the 6-foot-11-inch forward who
is a native New Englander, is on that
list.
''I don't know how we would fit him onto
our salary cap,'' Pitino said. ''We don't
have the room.''
And even if there were room, there are
whispers that Baker doesn't play hard
enough to warrant big money. But Baker,
who attended the University of Hartford,
has always said he wanted to play for the
Celtics. Before Pitino got to town, M.L.
Carr envisioned trading one of his lottery
picks to the Bucks for Baker.
But now, the more realistic names on the
list are those of Jon Barry, Michael Curry
(who has never gotten along with Antoine
Walker), Lawrence Funderburke, and Rodney
Rogers. Pitino has said that he would like
a scorer for his offensively challenged
second unit, so maybe he could talk to a
specialist such as Terry Mills or a decent
all-around player such as Cliff Robinson.
The coach has talked about the need for
veterans, so maybe he would talk with a
Terry Cummings or Detlef Schrempf. These
are all names the Celtics will peruse. The
most they can offer anyone is the
so-called middle-class exception of $2
million. Any other scenarios in which they
improve dramatically are unrealistic.
''In the landscape we are dealing with now
in the league, it will be very difficult
for teams to improve through the wholesale
dumping of salaries,'' Celtics general
manager Chris Wallace said.
With that being the case, Wallace goes to
the phones. He is the only member of the
organization who can talk with free agents
and their representatives over the next 30
days (each team has one designated
''talker''). Today is July 1. If you want
to find Wallace this month, he'll probably
be looking over that list and deciding
whom he wants to speak with next.
This story ran on page D08 of the Boston
Globe on 07/01/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.