Re: Pitinospeak

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> Let's throw it open to all of the GM wannbes out there.  If you're not
> willing to pay Ron Mercer, who will you get -- or do you think that
> getting rid of Ron would be addition by subtraction?  Are you THAT sure
> you want to move Pierce to the 2?  Are you going to give Minor more
> minutes?  If you're not willing to pay Battie, where will you get
> another 6'11" leaper?  Or do you think that somehow McCarty can fill
> that role for his $8M over 3 years?  I already know Ray wants to go out
> and get (at least) half the Clippers' roster, but I'd be curious to
> hear how the folks who aren't sold on Mercer and Battie would upgrade
> the team.

If I were to trade Mercer, I would consider Anthony Mason as a 
possibility (assuming that he recovers completely from his injury). 
He rebounds, defends, draws double teams, goes to the foul line a 
ton. He has experience, toughness, and he worked himself into the 
NBA from meager beginnings. He doesn't care if he doesn't take the
most shots. 

Negatives: he's 32, coming off an injury, has had problems with 
his coach, and off-court problems to boot. His contract also 
expires in 2000. If the deal doesn't seem balanced, perhaps Charlotte 
throws in their lottery pick. 

Why Charlotte does it: Because they've committed a bunch of money
to Campbell and Coleman, and none of these guys work at small forward.

Something like Mercer to Denver for Fortson and Keon Clark is a
possibility also. Denver will have 3 big men with Fortson, LaFrentz,
and McDyess and may not want to pay Fortson big bucks to sit on 
the bench. Someone said that Fortson was a tweener because of his
height, but I'm not ready to declare a double figure rebounder as
too short for the power forward position (Barkley). His April stats 
are 15.2 ppg, 13.5 rpg on 54% shooting. Admittedly, these are for a 
terrible Denver team. And we know that Pitino coveted Keon Clark
during the draft last year. Denver would be able to satisfy Mercer's
contract demands because of their new billionaire owner.

Alex