RE: Stackhouse

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

The Stackhouse rumor has a few interesting aspects. 

As noted by Ray, Stackhouse is not much of an outside threat (although a
better 3-point shooter than Ron Mercer: 27.8% to 16.7%) and I recall that
the jumpshot and ballhandling were aspects of the game that Jerry has
always needed to work on. However, despite his poor shooting percentage
Stackhouse actually generates more points per shot (1.24 pts/shot - compare
to .99 for RM or 1.07 for AW). This is because he is such an aggressive and
strong finisher to the hoop, which means he is consistently going to the
free throw line (an average of 7 times a game over his career - compare
this Ron's 2.6 or to Antoine, our team leader at 5 per game). Stackhouse's
ability to get to the line and convert would be a welcome addition on a
team that I imagine was close to the bottom of the league in this category,
and Boston's wide-open style should better suit Stackhouse's abilities in
this respect. 

As Ray also noted, Stackhouse is locked up long term at relatively cheap
money (a 7 year 37 mill deal). At age 24 (25 in November) Stackhouse
already has 5 years NBA experience and more importantly he has demonstrated
his willingness to come off the bench for the last two seasons. He could
provide the Celts with a slasher and scorer off the bench, thereby enabling
Pitino to shift Walker to SF, Pierce to SG, and start Tony Battie at PF
(who I was glad to hear the Celts want to re-sign).

Would this be a good trade? I have my doubts - despite the Cs' desperate
need for bench scoring and someone who knows how to attack the basket, it
sounds at best like a lateral move. Why not bring Mercer off the bench? Now
if only the Pistons could throw in a first-round draft pick this swap might
be more alluring, since even in the middle of the draft some interesting
PGs should be available (Herren, Vonteego Cummings), but Detroit doesn't
have a 1st-rounder and if they did they'd draft a PG themselves. 

I wonder if we offered to throw Dana Barros into the package what we might
be able to extract? On offer of Barros (3.5 mil), Ellison (2.4 mil) or
Minor (2.5 mil) and Mercer (2.0 mil) for Bison Dele (4.8 mil) and
Stackhouse (3.8 mil) would clear the cap rules but is it desirable? Boston
would add scoring punch and depth (at C and SF/SG) but questions abound:
Stackhouse's "J," the Bison's consistency, and is Damon Jones really ready
to step in when and if Kenny gets hurt? This scenario strikes me as only
marginally better that the one above - but I guess at least it doesn't
involve Mashburn! On the other hand, staying the course does not seem to be
an option, particularly since it seems that the Celts are afraid Mercer
will jump ship. I guess we'll see soon. . . 

Best wishes

Tom Murphy