Re: Would you do Walker for Mutombo

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

John Lyell wrote:

> From the news lately it seems Mutombo may have hit the same wall Dominique
> Wilkins hit when he arrived at the Celtics.  I would not trade Walker or
> Pierce for him. If that was the missing piece maybe, but we are far from
> that.

    FWIW, Atlanta is such a bottom feeder right now even with Dikimbe on the
roster that it doesn't make sense for the Hawks to hold out for a marquee
talent in return. He's officially listed at 34-years-old but I've read there's
some doubt about his birth certificate. Atlanta needs to go into full
rebuilding mode for a couple of years before they'll see the playoffs, and by
then Dikimbe might be producing at the level where Parish was when he joined
the Bulls, or Artis Gilmore when he joined the Celtics. Look before you
leap...Dikimbe's numbers have already started to slip badly (career low FG%,
FT%, rebounds, blocks, scoring, everything). He's averaging half as many blocks
(1.75) as his career average.

    A Potapenko plus 1st round draft pick might do the trick (plus cap
balancers like either Williams or a blockboster involving Kenny Anderson for
say Jason Terry).

    I do sense one thing. There are some very flawed, veteran Eastern teams
right now that could get to the Finals if they added a motivated and healthy
Mutombo at midseason. The Miami Heat are one example. Or the Knicks, Bucks etc.
I'd wager it will be a veteran team that goes and gets Mutombo, and that
Atlanta would settle for far less than an Antoine Walker for him. The problem
is that those veteran teams don't have any young big men or good draft picks to
offer in return to a rebuilding Atlanta squad, whereas Boston sort of does. I
do think a healthy Dikimbe could add 10 wins to Pitino's team (43-46 wins),
provided we still kept both Toine and Paul. That is to say, I believe we'd
outscore and outrebound the majority of our opponents and come out on top in
the majority of ugly wins, not just the pretty ones.

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