Contract extensions

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

The signing of Tony Battie was certainly pleasant news, especially
since it came at a reasonable price ($24M); little more than Travis
Knight. According to reports, the incentives are based on victories,
rebounds, and blocks. The biggest difference between Knight and Battie
in my mind is that Knight simply wasn't motivated to play for Pitino.
Given the work that Battie has done for Pitino over the offseason,
I would guess that he'll be the type of player who improves season 
after season. 

I expect that Battie will be brought off the bench because the position
he plays will probably depend on opposing matchups; against teams 
offensively in capable centers (which many backup centers are), he'll 
come in and really make an impact with his shotblocking at the center
position. When the other team has a big, strong center type, he'll
probably spend very little time at center. Generally, Pitino will want
to manufacture matchups where Battie doesn't have to cover a dominant
one-on-one player.

According to Pitino, Fortson's contract will wait until the offseason.
The fact that this doesn't worry either Pitino or Fortson is reassuring.
This isn't going to be a situation like Mercer's where there's a "sign
me now or lose me" ultimatum, so the Celtics will simply use their 
ability to pay Fortson more than anyone else to keep him.
 
I saw Fortson play for the first time against Atlanta and I have to say,
I'm very impressed. The guy is a great rebounder and not just because he
has a huge, wide body and a ton of strength. He just seems to go after
the ball harder than anyone else. You'll probably see Antoine's 
rebounding stats suffer a bit when he's on the floor with Fortson, but
the team will rebound better overall. The same thing happened to the
rebounding stats of everyone else on the Bulls when Rodman joined them.
He actually throws good outlet passes too, which is an area in which 
Walker has not excelled in.

His inability to shoot over taller defenders doesn't worry me too much.
He seems to use his body well to get to the line (which he did very
well in Denver). He probably shouldn't shoot much anyways, except on 
putbacks, when his man leaves him to double team, or in transition.

Alex