Re: Tony Battie

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

The Rogers trade is as dead as Dillinger, in my
opinion.  I think Rogers is a FA now, heavily courted
by the Sixers and many other teams.  (So much for him
being a useless "slug" as Peter May said.)  I think if
that trade was going to happen it would have been
before the draft.  One of the big benefits of trading
Ron is you now have the money to sign Tony.  I'm sure
Pitino hasn't missed the news of how well Tony has
been playing.  When is Up Close on?


--- clittlefield@lycos.com wrote:
> 
> 
> Amen, brother.
> 
> One caveat to Mercer's return-team's nosedive is
> that is when Pierce went down,
> so there's probably some overlap, but in my mind
> Pierce and Mercer did not
> develop an on-court rapport with each other.  I
> agree with your points and want
> to add the following:
> 
> 1) Whereas Pierce and Walker are impact, ie big-shot
> making players, I have not
> seen that from Mercer.  Pierce already has more
> dramatic, end-of-game shots than
> Mercer, in a 50-game season.  Heck, he started out
> by winning that Cleveland
> game by going over Kemp for the offensive putback
> and ended by sinking those two
> HUGE treys to tie it up against Charlotte with 8
> seconds left in the
> season-ender.  And Walker's won more games
> singlehandedly than either of the
> other two.
> 2) Pierce/Mercer remind me of Spree/Houston in the
> regular season.  I'm not
> saying they couldn't coexist...they just didn't this
> last season and you all
> know Pitino's attention span.
> 3) The Dallas comparison is great.  I think that's
> why Rick has been going after
> Mash...;)  They need to understand that # of shots
> means less than wins.
> 4) I would have done the Antonio Davis trade in a
> heartbeat.  That kind of 4th
> big man (with Battie, VP, Walker) would have allowed
> greater flexibility up and
> down the lineup...the ability to go big, go small,
> go medium, go fast, go really
> fast, and have a presence inside, while at the same
> time focussing the scoring
> in Walker and Pierce and getting the others more
> shots as well.
> 
> A friend of mine saw Battie in Waltham before the
> league, so as he's probably
> working out with he team every day, I don't think
> he's going to get Williamized.
> 
> If we ended up in a sign and trade with the Clips
> for Lorenzen Wright
> (preferably due to his blocking/rebounding bent) or
> Mo Taylor (big, but more of
> a scorer than rebounder/inside presence) would be
> just dandy with me.
> 
> Later,
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> j.hironaka@unesco.org on 07/21/99 06:24:18 AM
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>  To:      Cecil Wright <cecil@hfx.eastlink.ca>,     
>          
>           celtics@igtc.com                          
>          
>                                                     
>          
>  cc:      (bcc: Chris Littlefield/Lycos)            
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>  Subject: Re: Tony Battie                           
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cecil Wright wrote:
> 
> > Still following the ongoing saga of the Ron Mercer
> signing/trading.  Seems
> > like only yesterday when he was being praised for
> leading the C's during
> > practice sessions while the players were locked
> out last year.  Now because
> > he isn't he best in the league at his position, as
> if other Celts are, he
> > should be traded for a bag of chips and a napkin.
> >
> > There have been comparisons between him and other
> players who have blossomed
> > as they matured, but we don't wanna give him time
> to grow because of the
> > salary factor.  I would agree, but only if his
> request is COMPLETELY
> > UNREASONABLE!!  Remember, he is a player who
> should be entering the NBA this
> > year, yet has shown flashes of brilliance at
> times, and subpar play at other
> > times.  I suspect there are others his age who
> have similar lapses,
> > including Vince Carter who wasn't needed to help
> rebound like Mercer, since
> > he had the likes of Willis and Oakley for that
> purpose.  Vince had one
> > responsibility, which was scoring, and he did it
> well.
> 
> In fairness, Vince Carter did average 4.17 assists
> during his "Rookie of the
> Month" April and close to 3 overall (2.98). This
> plus his blocks (1.54), ability
> to draw fouls (5.4 FT per game) and rebounds (5.70)
> from the two guard position
> made him the consensus ROY over our Paul Pierce.
> Also, Ron Mercer scored a bunch
> of points in part because he took over 17 shots per
> game, compared to Vince
> Carter's more unselfish 15.3 attempts per game.
> 
> IMHO if Paul Pierce were up for a contract extension
> this summer I'm sure you'd
> see no hesitation or lame budget excuses from Pitino
> prior to inevitably signing
> that kid to the maximum, as he also did with Walker
> (because of their
> non-scoring stats and ability to draw a double
> team). I think Pitino is just
> making up all kinds of phony-baloney budgetary
> excuses in order to successfully
> avoid re-signing his long-time pupil Mercer. IMO,
> Ron Mercer hurt not just Paul
> Pierce but Celts team chemistry overall when he
> returned in March. Even with
> Antoine and Kenny out of shape and shooting bricks,
> the Celts still played over
> .500 ball until the very moment Mercer returned from
> injury on March 1st
> (including 4-1 without him). What in the world
> compelled Mercer to come in and
> start jacking up a team-leading 17.5 shots per game,
> even as the team collapsed
> and went 4-17? I can't even imagine a Celts team
> with worse team chemistry.
> 
> The 1999 Boston Celtics are a bit like the Sixers
> from the late 70s with World
> B. Free, George McGinnis, Dr J etc. IMO, the Celts
> ideally might need to trade
> some of their shooters for a Bobby Jones (PJ Brown?)
> and a Mo Cheeks
> type-of-player. A more recent analogy would be the
> Dallas team of Jim Jackson,
> Jason Kidd and Jamaal Mashburn. All those guys seem
> like perfectly good people
> (like Ron Mercer) and are key contributors on
> playoff teams. They just didn't
> mix and match well.
> 
> Right now it really looks like Ron Mercer will play
> out the string and become a
> free-agent next year, unless we can find a taker. If
> Ron Mercer goes unsigned,
> I'll make a wager with you that 1) Mercer will lead
> the team in shots next
> 
=== message truncated ===

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