With my compliments ... er, complements

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

Sorry about the bad pun. But I was thinking about this idea of Mercer as
"just" a complementary player, and the player who I thought of was Allen
Houston. For the first 4 1/2 years of his career, Houston was a complementary
player, first for Grant Hill, then for Ewing. He's debatably turned into less
of a complementary player and more of a go-to go as his career's gone on,
especially during the times Ewing has been out. I think we could all agree
that Houston has turned himself into a pretty decent shooting guard, one who's
still improving and poses a lot of upside, and one we'd like to see in Celtic green.

So, I went to the stats and found that Ron's compare pretty favorably to
Houston's. In fact, Ron is ahead of where Houston was at the end of his second
year (though you have to draw an asterix because Houston came to Detroit when
Isaiah Thomas was still on board, whereas Mercer's been on a rebuilding team
from the get-go).

Take a look at these statistics from Mercer's 2nd year (last year) and
Houston's third (when he started earning serious playing time):

HOUSTON: 37 mpg, 45% fg, 42% 3 point, 19.7 ppg - 
MERCER: 37 mpg, 43% fg, 17% 3 point, 17 ppg - 

Both players have comparable career FT numbers (83% vs 82%). They have
identical career assist numbers (2.3/g). Now obviously, Houston is, has been
and probably always will be a better 3-point shooter, though it's interesting
to note he shot just 29% as a rookie. Ron may never improve much in that area
-- it's not really his game -- but he does bring you more steals (1.6 vs .8),
more boards (3.6 vs 2.3) and fewer turnovers (1.8 vs 2.1). 

It's also interesting to note how Houston has refined and added to his game.
Initially perceived as just a jump shooter, he's really worked at becoming a
more dangerous driver. I see absolutely no reason not to expect Ron Mercer to
take similar strides -- somewhere, if not with us. And though his three point
range is a liability, it's not crushing -- look at what Latrell Sprewell,
considered one of the very best at the position, did this year (27%). Even
Jordan was never a dominating 3 point shooter. Suffice to say I would *much*
rather see Ron Mercer playing off guard for the Celtics next season than
Adrian Griffin, Kris Clack or Greg Minor.