Peter May TSN Celtics Report

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

May doesn't think Battie will be back; neither does Holly - 
Might we see a package of Battie and Barros to Detroit for
Jerome Williams....
     
     
      The Sporting News


      Boston Celtics
      Team Report posted MAY 7, 1999      

      By TSN correspondent
      Peter May
      Boston Globe
      The day after the Celtics concluded their disappointing 19-31 season, Rick 
      Pitino and his ever-growing staff was at the club's new training facility 
      ready to go. It will be that way for much of the summer. 
      Pitino was expecting a half-dozen players to show up for a couple days of 
      basketball and conditioning drills. Everyone will be put on a summer 
      regimen with the idea to have each player in top physical condition when 
      training camp opens in five months. 
      It's a good idea. Pitino is a conditioning zealot and his frenzied style 
      requires players to be in excellent shape. The coach has set aside blocks 
      of days in June, July and September for players who want to come in and 
      receive instruction and conditioning. 
      Pitino insists the whole thing is voluntary, although he hopes for a big 
      turnout. He's also saying the sessions will deal with individual 
      instruction and thus can't be viewed as a minicamp, which both the NBA and 
      the NBA Players Association would frown on. Still, the players association 
      plans to keep an eye on the always envelope-pushing Pitino to make sure 
      the players who don't report aren't punished and that the players who do 
      report do so on their own. Many players, however, go elsewhere in the 
      summer. Pitino wants them to hire personal trainers if they don't come 
      back to Boston. Antoine Walker, who stays in Chicago in the summer, says 
      he'll do just that. 
      The coach already is on record as saying the Celtics will make the 
      playoffs next year, something they haven't done in four years. He feels 
      that with a summer of workouts and a full training camp, that the Celtics 
      will be in the shape they need to be to play his way. That may be true. 
      Whether they will be good enough is the other question and they'll have to 
      leapfrog a few teams just to make the playoffs. . . . 
      There also will be major financial decisions to make. Pitino claims that 
      he is on a budget which equals the salary cap and the veteran exception. 
      Next year, that figure is about $36 million. However, the Celtics' 
      guaranteed payroll is more than $40 million, so he's already more than 10 
      percent over budget. Plus, he has two soon-to-be free agents -- Ron Mercer 
      and Tony Battie -- who he needs to deal with. 
      Both cases will be interesting to watch. Mercer may feel, and justifiably 
      so, that he's every bit as valuable to the team as Walker, who signed for 
      the maximum last January. Walker's $71 million, six-year extension starts 
      next season. The team is eligible to start negotiating with Mercer soon -- 
      as well as Battie -- and Pitino is giving strong signs that Mercer won't 
      get the same deal as Walker. 
      Mercer is represented by No Limit, the agency headed by Master P. He is 
      their signature basketball client and undoubtedly they will be looking for 
      a big hit out of the box. If Pitino tries to lowball them -- everything is 
      relative, of course -- they may decide to test the market in the summer of 
      2000. Should the sides be unable to reach an agreement, Pitino would then 
      move to trade Mercer and try to make the most of the situation. 
      Still, there aren't many teams with the cap room that could pay Mercer 
      more than Boston and it could well come down to whether Mercer, who has 
      played for no one other than Pitino the last four years, might want to see 
      what it's like to play for a normal NBA coach, if such an individual 
      exists. 
      Battie has played well in Boston, although not as consistently as Pitino 
      would like. He's also likely to be dealt, if for no other reason than 
      he'll probably be asking for too much and the Celtics already have Walker, 
      Popeye Jones and Walter McCarty under contract for the next couple years 
      at least. Why Pitino moved so quickly to re-sign McCarty (three years, 
      $8.4 million) in January is a mystery because it's not like McCarty would 
      be a coveted free agent. His game is tailor-made for Pitino and it would 
      have been a minimal risk to allow McCarty to become a free agent and then 
      try to re-sign him. 
      Battie also didn't endear himself to Pitino by getting arrested last 
      month. He has a hearing next week on charges that he refused to identify 
      himself for a police officer, who wanted him to move his vehicle. 
      According to the police report, Battie turned up the music in his vehicle 
      and then, while moving the vehicle, dragged along a policeman, whose arm 
      was stuck in the window. It got so heated that the policeman had to draw a 
      gun on Battie. He denies the charges. 



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