Re: [Fwd: SPORTS NETWORK: WALKER FOR VAN HORN TRADE AT END OF SEASON?]

[opi@unesco.org]

Sports Network wrote:

>             According to a source close to the Celtics, personal differences
>             have created a rift between the 24-year-old Van Horn and star Jersey
>             point guard Stephon Marbury.

According to a source close to the....Celtics?? (how would he or she know?)

Sounds like a Jersey Red special to me.

I think this trade could make Jersey a much tougher team in the conference, but then
again they could continue to tank (it's a very selfish environment with or without a
Van Horn/Antoine).

By adding Van Horn, the Celts would not improve on defense nor in terms of shot
selection (Van Horn is a career .423 shooter, down to .384 this year). He's a career
.309 shooter (88-285) on threes, whereas Antoine is .334 (223-668). Van Horn is also
averaging 2.0 assists and 3.7 turnovers this season, and is at 1.7 assists to 2.9
turnovers per game for his career. Antoine, like most NBA players, has more assists
(3.2) than turnovers (3.1) in his career.

This is not a totally implausible or necessarily uneven trade scenario, since Van
Horn adds a lot of intangibles (he'll make fans go to games again and make Peter May
very happy). This would help the team a lot.

In the end, it's hard to believe that New Jersey would trade a marquee white hope,
even if he has a face only a mother could love. I sense he'd be very popular in
Boston but also be misrepresented/overrated the same way Mercer was as some sort of
old school, humble, do a little bit of everything type athlete (the "Anti-Toine").

I actually can't believe I'm seriously talking about this trade though.

Joe

N.B. No doubt about it, last night was a big win. The Celts shut down Indiana's
perimeter game just as they did against Cleveland. Piece of cake. :-) We've
demonstrated again that we can win games even if one of our two "go to" scorers has
an off night, and this is in no way a trivial achievement. I hope we'll have our
first "playoff atmosphere" when Miami comes to the Fleet Center on the 3rd of
December (since that's the team we're going to knock off in the first or second
round behind Toine, Pierce and Fortson). :-)

****