What The Knicks Trade Means To The Celtics

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

With the Knicks' absolute steal of a deal and their blatant heisting
of Glen Rice and Vin Baker for a practically defunct Pat Ewing,
it now means that four teams  -- Miami, Orlando, New Jersey,
and the Knicks -- in the Eastern Division - the very same milieu,
where your hometeam Boston Celtics reside - have
improved themselves dramatically in the off season.

The Celtics, on the other hand, have done a nice job of adding
backup players in the recent months, albeit a few of them
with their NBA careers about to expire. Adding these bench players
is admirable, and shows that Pitino would have been a wonderful GM
for a top heavy 1986 Boston Celtics team that desperately cried out for
such depth.

But this is the Year 2000, and when four other clubs in your very own
division are adding quality starters, and you retort with okay bench
personnel, it means the gap between those other clubs and you
has increased proportionally, and if you weren't before, you are now,
on the outside -- the outside of the playoffs -- looking in.

We can only hope Pitino sticks to his newest and hopefully not short-
lived strategy of hoarding draft choices, because until the C's clear
up the Cap Space and decrease the mediocrity of their talent, the
Draft is the only way this club will be able to make a qualitative
difference in their chances of being a playoff contender again.
Ray