Re: A quote for Mark Berry

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

Jim Meninno wrote:
But we keep running into this misunderstanding that I can't figure out
exactly what "major talent" you think is available for a Paul Pierce, Bryant
Stith type offer. 

I don't know what's out there, but Pitino mentioned these "unbelievable"
offers for Pierce. The thing with Pierce is, say you trade him for Shareef
Abdur Rahim (just an example). Shareef is making Antoine money. So you
package Pierce with some bad contracts to make the salaries match. You
exchange talent-for-talent, but you gain the advantage of dumping bad
contracts. Too often under Pitino, we've been the team on the other end,
taking back Kenny Anderson or Eric Williams contracts that kill your roster
flexibility.

Trades can go any number of ways. Ideally, a big-time talent would become
available (I'm talking Garnett, Grant Hill, Kobe, McGrady kind of talent)
and you package Pierce and picks to land that guy. Otherwise you look at
comparable talents (say Shareef, Mike Bibby, Lamar Odom, etc.) and see if
there is some value in making that kind of trade. 

The reason I'd like to get Pitino out of here now is the third option:
Making a trade that hurts now but has a chance for a big payoff. I'll throw
out this example: Say Indiana becomes convinced they can make a run in the
East with one more scorer, and they zero in on Pierce. Would they trade
Jonanthan Bender and Austin Croshere for Pierce? Clearly, that's not a great
deal for the Celts right now, but if Bender turns out to be the player
everyone seems to think he can be, it could be a steal. Again, it's just an
example.

The key is getting Pitino's finger off the trigger. He's more likely to make
a move for today, when the Celtics desperately need to start thinking about
the future. Maybe nothing appealing comes up before the trading deadline,
and that's fine. But maybe it does. Maybe the Bulls become desperate to add
a veteran in order to make their team more appealing to free agents. If they
offer Crawford and their No. 1 for Pierce or Walker, it tests the now or
tomorrow argument. If that No. 1 turns out to be a franchise center, it's a
no-brainer. But if you just look at it for what it does for the team today,
it's useless.

So, do I know exactly the kind of move I want the Celts to make? No, there
are several scenarios. But I do know the kind of move I don't want them to
make.

Mark