Re: [Fwd: WALKER TO CHICAGO REPORTED!]

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Joe, I won't pretend to know the numbers, but don't other salaries come off
the cap next year-Barros, at least. Certainly there would be work to be done
in clearing more space, but let's face it-Toine is a big chunk.

As for Fizer-who knows how good he will be? I thought Brand would be a bust,
but he proved me wrong. I like Fizer coming out of college more than I liked
Brand, which means absolutely nothing. I saw one scouting report on Fizer
that said he was the only guy in this draft who would demand a double team
in the NBA. I don't know. I know I personally witnessed Fizer dominate
Kenyon Martin in a practice for one of those U.S. national teams before this
most recent college season. 

I'm not pretending this is a great trade, but I'm not convinced it's a bad
trade, either. I am thrilled at the thought that Pitino is considering a
major shakeup. I don't want another dreary season with the same mediocre
players. We overvalue Walker and Pierce. What do you think Walker's value is
around the league? He's had one good season, and shot under 44 percent in
that. He doesn't defend. He doesn't work hard, and that in itself undermines
his coach. Trading him for a potential all-star power forward and $11
million in cap flexibility doesn't sound like a terrible deal to me, if you
can stand the struggles that are bound to come this season.

As for an all-out tank job, believe me, we we're not that far from that if
we go into the season with the current roster.

Mark 


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Joe Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
<mailto:[SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]> 
	Sent:	Thursday, August 3, 2000 2:00 PM
	To:	Berry, Mark S; Celtics@igtc.com <mailto:Celtics@igtc.com> 
	Subject:	Re: [Fwd: WALKER TO CHICAGO REPORTED!]

	"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

	> OK, now this is more like it! Is this a great trade? Depends on
Fizer, who
	> I'm not entirely sold on. But at least we have some indication
that Pitino
	> is thinking big. Freeing up Toine's salary would be nice, and if
Fizer pans
	> out, it looks like a great move.
	>
	> I'll defer to Pitino and Wallace on the Fizer evaluation, but at
least we're
	> talking about something big. This certainly doesn't make the
Celtics better
	> for the coming season, but it might be an indication that they're
thinking
	> about the big picture-freeing up cap room, building a more
flexible,
	> trade-friendly roster. And Fizer could be the low-post scorer
they've
	> lacked.
	>
	> Anyway, it's interesting.
	>
	> Mark

	I really need help on how the salary cap works. If the Celtics got
free and
	clear of Antoine's 11 million, then based on last season's payroll
of
	$46,152,875 (claims Patricia Bender's site) they would still be left
over the
	$34 million cap.

	Next season, the cap rises to a grand total $35.5 million. But with
the Randy
	and Moiso signings and raises, it seems to me Boston won't offset
the windfall
	of losing Pervis, Overton and Fortson.

	Dumping Antoine for a non-rebounding, undersized Pfizer Viagra-boy
needs to be
	part of a massive restructuring whereby Boston have a clear plan to
dump Eric
	Williams and Kenny Anderson as well. This needs to be part of a much
bigger
	tank-the-season lottery ping pong ball strategy, like the one that
gave us a
	chance at Tim Duncan.

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