Mr. Bskball Says Its Anstey, Walker & Future No. 1 for Mercer, Ellison and Popeye

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

WayRay wrote:
>Anyways, if the trade goes down, I'm sure the Rickster will put a nice
spin on it.

How about:  "This young man Samaki Walker is a major bonehead operation
away from having 'future All Star' written all over him"?  IMO, his
career achievements don't even hint of Rodney Rogers potential.

Hearing the phrase "Ron Mercer for Samaki Walker and Chris Anstey" goes
way beyond my worst nightmare. First of all, basketball is nothing at
all like baseball or football where you have mucho guys on the field and
bench, and thus each player no matter how visible is less of a
difference-maker relatively speaking, perhaps with the exception of
starting pitchers (who still only appear once every 4 or 5 games) or
quarterbacks (who still rely on five or six teammates to block
steroid-addled guys intent on homicide). In basketball, you have just
five guys out there at once. A single player makes a massive difference
in a game (even greater when they are a team chemistry asset like a
young Bill Walton/Larry Bird/Magic or, of course, Bill Russell).

Boy, I must sound pedantic or foolish or both. This out of the way, let
me still just say that the one freaking thing a Celts team should NEVER
start a precedent by doing is swapping "quality" for "quantity".

Basketball is about talent. This is why the Sixers calmly gave away "too
much" of its justifiably admired team depth (Caldwell Jones was the PJ
Brown of his day) to acquire MVP Moses Malone, even if it forced them to
move a 12th man at best (Marc Iavaroni) directly into the starting
lineup. This is also why Pat Riley reportedly offered the Celts ANY four
players on his team other than Zo and Tim in exchange for triple-threat
Antoine Walker.  Pat "Livin' the Greaso Loco" Riley basically thought he
was smarter than us.

Antoine Walker is selfish and rather block-headed no doubt, but go click
on NBA.COM's Celts "Team Theater" whenever you feel like seeing the
evidence for yourself. He may be selfish and boorish but he has a
special vision for the pass. I would wager that 90% of all the Celtics
video highlights from the past two seasons combined originate from an
Antoine Walker assist. For example, every time you click on a Ron Mercer
highlight jam you invariably also will see Walker lofting the running
alley-oop pass or stealing the inbounds pass to help make the play
happen.

I hope it is no longer controversial to say that Ron Mercer is very
talented but lacks dimensions (clearly Jersey Red's opinions are partly
formed by Pitino/Wallace's dinner conversations). If the Celts can trade
Mercer for a guard who can also pass or command double teams or a
forward who can rebound/defend/block shots, then I presume Pitino won't
even blink before offering Mercer AND our entire bench with it (for
example, in a Fortson or Penny scenario). But if we are panicking about
Ron Mercer being slightly overpaid if he signs at Antoine Walker money,
then I would applaud/hug Pitino for refusing to trade out of
desperation.

Frankly, I think Pitino wants to trade Mercer for reasons that have
nothing to do with the convenient excuse of money. Prior to the new
collective bargaining agreement, it had become a foregone conclusion
that any high lottery pick who pans out would get a 100 million dollar
extension. "Exhibit A" would be a barbie-girl rebounder like Rasheed
Wallace. Antoine Walker signed for slightly less than half of the 18
million we speculated he might ask for, based on Sheed's 14 million and
Garnett's 23 million.

---------