Mercer/Fortson

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

On the Ron Mercer/Danny Fortson trade:

Quite possibly, this trade will help both teams. Denver would have
had trouble finding minutes for Fortson with the return of LaFrentz
and with McDyess playing 40 minutes per game. Mercer may indeed be
a small forward that only scores but does not rebound, pass, or 
defend; however last year Denver played with small forwards that
did not score OR rebound, pass, and defend, so he will certainly be
an improvement. My feeling is that they will still be quite bad;
hopefully so bad that Mercer takes off for another team, sending them
into a tailspin, and guaranteeing that their 2001 pick, belonging to
the Celtics, will be a high one. 

As for Fortson's effect on the Celtics, judging from the raves from 
some of his teammates (you can't really trust Pitino's raves), he
sounds like everything we hoped for in terms of rebounding and 
toughness. Beyond that, the Celtics have removed an obvious chemistry
problem by taking away Mercer, who evidently hindered the games of 
the three other most important starters, Walker, Pierce, and Anderson.
By replacing Mercer with Fortson, you're switching from a guy who
takes shot opportunities away from his teammates to one who generates
additional shot opportunities for his teamd with his offensive 
rebounding. Fortson took 386 shots and got 210 offensive rebounds last
year. Ron Mercer took 707 shots and got 37 offensive rebounds. Replace
Mercer with Fortson (yes, this is very unscientific) and you have 494 
additional opportunites for his teammates. I think that his teammates 
are going to appreciate him a great deal. 

I don't think that the Celtics are just going to run the double screen
play with the same frequency with Pierce. That play utilized Mercer's
skill at using screens, which was his primary way of getting his shots.
Pierce has a different offensive package, including an ability to 
drive, post up, and hit three pointers. While Pitino does want him to 
learn to use screens better, he's not going to try to turn him into a 
Ron Mercer clone on offense. And if the Celtics do run the double 
screen with Cheaney on the second unit, that's fine. The second unit
can't be picky about how it gets its points. I just don't think we're
going to see that play run 20+ times per game like we did last year.

Side note: Pitino has mentioned Fortson's nice shooting touch. If this
is true, perhaps we are going to see some screen and roll (or screen
and fade to the baseline) with Anderson and Fortson or Potapenko this 
year.

Alex