Re: [Fwd: WALKER TO CHICAGO REPORTED!]

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> 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

Yeah, well you might be right. :-)

Frankly this trade rumor doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me and I won't
lose sleep over it, considering that to our knowledge Pitino never worked out or
expressed interest in Pfizer, at 6-7 he doesn't fit the roving shot blocking
power forward role anymore than Fortson or Toine, he was a below-average college
rebounder (quite unlike Brand or even Odom), plus Pitino reportedly would only
trade Antoine for a proven, young NBA player.

It really depends on how much under the cap we get. Barros, Griffin and Minor
come off in 2001, and that's not chump change. If we are scheduled to shed 17 or
18 million off the cap via a Walker trade, then it may well be worthwhile to at
least explore this scenario. BTW that still probably won't put Boston in a
position to offer a 01 free agent the maximum (maybe six million like you said),
but of course it seems doubtful that any free agent of that caliber would want
to go to an undersized, undertalented, cold-weather city.

A Pfizer+Crawford deal might be plausible, but again I don't think Pfizer is
destined to stay in Pitino-land for long. One thing about this offseason is that
at least Pitino is starting to show some consistency in his player philosophy
(recruiting bigger more defensive and athletic players). Or maybe there really
is some sort of darker inside information underlying this Walker firesale. Maybe
he is as big as Big Mama or whatever.


Joe

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