More on Orlando-Denver trade

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

NBA.com has what I assume are more accurate details about the trade
on its web site. Evidently the draft pick that Orlando is sending
back to Denver is lottery-protected, which means that Denver doesn't
get it back if they don't make the playoffs. Furthermore Denver is
giving Orlando a conditional first-round draft pick also, which could
mean anything I think. It could be conditional on Mercer re-signing
with the Magic for instance. Or it could be based on almost anything
else.

The details of this trade could be pretty important to the Celtics 
since we own one of Denver's future draft picks. For instance, if
Denver doesn't make the playoffs this year, it looks like they 
probably won't have a first-round pick either. And if Gatling is
the cancer that people say he is, hopefully they'll take a turn
for the worse in time for us to cash in on their lottery pick in 2001.

So much for Dan Issel supposedly robbing Pitino. And they also gave
up Billups at a pretty low price considering that they paid a #5 pick
to get him. Maybe they'll be able to get him back for the $2M exception
because there's probably not going to be that much interest in him.

Alex