Re: This is the mentality of Celtics fans

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> You forget that Samaki played 43 and 41 games in his first two 82 game 
> seasons, and 39 last year.  Not exactly reliable...
> 
> I agree that he did have a pretty good tear of strong games in his second
> season, but Mercer's performance over his first two seasons is head and
> shoulders above Walker's.  Do you really want to give up that much for so
> little?

You are right about the reliability issue. Certainly I think that Mercer
is a better talent than Samaki Walker. But I can understand that the Celtics
don't want to pay Mercer what he wants, especially since, in my opinion,
he doesn't particularly complement the true stars on the team, Antoine 
Walker and Pierce. Hopefully Pitino can do better than this trade - I'd
love Penny Hardaway - but if he can't (due to Mercer's contract situation)
I'll give Pitino and Samaki a chance before I judge him. All I've been 
saying is that his stats don't necessarily paint him as a worse player
than Battie or Lorenzen Wright.

And there is a precedent for a team getting nothing for a pretty good 
player with inflated contract demands - Golden State with Joe Smith.
Smith was a #1 pick that didn't live up to expectations but was still
a pretty solid player, better than Mercer at the same points in their
career. He was also All-Rookie, had a statistically impressive second
year (and you can't argue that Mercer's year was that impressive other
than perhaps statistically in terms of ppg). Golden State got basically 
nothing for him, and so did Philadelphia after they traded for him.
Does that mean Golden State should have given in to his contract demands?
I don't know but evidently Philadelphia didn't think he was worth a big
contract either. Nor did any other team in the league with cap room.
It's just a tough situation for the Celtics with Mercer and I can see
that the Celtics might not get equal talent in a trade due to Mercer's
contract demands. If Pitino makes this trade, he at least retains 
flexibility in spending and for trades and can possibly recoup the
talent difference with the first round draft pick.

Alex

> 
> Chris