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

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

I appreciate this point of view, and think it's well
stated.  But we can't really get value for Mercer
because of his contract status, and the inclusion of
all this cap garbage makes me think that Pitino is
clearing cap room for another good veteran player. 
Fortson is better than Mercer, and was unrealistic. 
Moreover, he will want the max just as Ron did, which
while I agree with Joe wasn't the main reason behind
his exile, was definitely part of it.  You can only
have so many 6-year 71 Million dollar players on your
team before you run out of money/cap room forever.  I
worry about the talent level diminishing, even if
Samaki turns out to be really good.  We're giving up a
starter for two backups.  But the key in this is the
lottery pick.  Remember how we got Ron in the first
place?  For that matter, remember how we got Mr. AVI
video highlight, Antoine Walker?  An unprotected first
rounder from Dallas is the NBA equivalent of Microsoft
stock.  Since I suspect there will be further roster
tinkering, I like this trade a lot, and even if there
isn't the combination of a lottery pick down the road
and addition by subtraction now makes it make sense. 
As long as we keep Walker and Battie, I will be happy.

The bottom line with the coming season is that Kenny
Anderson has to get with the program.  If he does,
we'll score 100 a game, no problem, and make the
playoffs.  If he doesn't, we're in trouble....UNLESSS
it turns out that Walker and Pierce are full-blown all
stars, we begin to utilize Potapenko, and the PG
position becomes strictly an assist and defense
strength via Wayne Turner or somebody like him.  Hell,
Dana for that matter.  Chemistry can do a lot for your
offense.

--- j.hironaka@unesco.org wrote:
> 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.
> 
> ---------
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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