Top Ten Reasons Why The Potapenko Trade Stunk

[Thndrblt31@aol.com]

Not my ideas or opinions, just thought this might generate some discussion on 
the board.  Enjoy!

Subject: Top Ten Reasons Why Pot Trade Stunk
From: <A HREF="mailto:dontonton@aol.com ">dontonton@aol.com </A> (Dontonton)
Date: 8/6/00 1:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id: <20000806135030.10625.00001857@ng-bd1.aol.com>

Hey, it's August and there's nothing much going on in the b-ball world. I
confess to being surprised that the Pot trade has so many Celtic supporters. 
So
here's why I thought the deal was lousy.

1. Celts record did not improve after the trade. (In fact, Celts went on a
mini-winning streak with DeClerq at pivot just before the trade). 

2. DeClerq has statistics comparable to Pot. Sure he got pushed around, but he
was more active, too.

3. Pot only plays 20-24 minutes a game. If he's such an upgrade at center, why
doesn't Pitino play him more?

4. Andre Miller

5. Pitino said at the time that the main reason for the trade at the time is
that there would be no other centers available. Last summer, Kelvin Cato, Lo
Wright, and Olden Polynice were available. Not great, but no worse than Pot.

6. In the last game of 1999 Brad Miller (Brad Miller???) torches Pot and the
Celts for 32 points. What good is strong center who keeps people out of the
paint if you can still jump over him or move around him?

7. On Antoine Walker's website, during the last two years, AW said before the
draft that the Celts should take a big man. So much for the confidence of the
(supposed) best player on your team.

8. No other teams seem to want Pot. Only rumor was Denver-who may have taken
Pot for good defensive/mediocre offensive guard Wahad-but they wanted draft
choices as well.. Denver may have been one of the few teams who could use a
tough, short, poor rebounding big man like Pot-yet they still needed draft
choices.

9. Cap space.

10. A front line of Walker and Pot is just too short and porous. Walker at
power forward (his only position) really needs to play with a bigger, more
intimidating center. No wonder our interior defense is one of the worst in the
league.

There, I've said it. And to think I accused Bob M. of complaining!

-Don