Re: Re. How about Glen Rice?

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Mark Berry writes: 

> Forget about whether or not he would accept being the third option or coming
> off the bench. Fortson for Rice? Jerry West would laugh Wallace and Pitino
> out of the room. They're talking about a Rice for Hughes/Geiger deal with
> Philly. Fortson wouldn't be enough to land either of those players from the
> Sixers. We're all SERIOUSLY over-valuing Danny Fortson right now.

Beyond that, even if we could acquire Rice, the amount of money he probably
wants in free agency is going to be huge. As an 11 year veteran, he could
demand up to a $14M base salary (Antoine's is $9M). I don't think you try
to bring your $100M All-NBA acquisition off the bench either. Now whether
he could co-exist with Walker or Pierce is unclear. Mercer's problem was
not just that he shot the ball a lot, but that the way he fit in the offense
wasn't complementary to the others. Rice might be better in that regard
because he can shoot the 3 and space the offense better. Our #1 and #2
options aren't quite as demanding as the Laker's (Shaq and Kobe average
50 ppg between them) so he could conceivably be more of an equal partner.
But he's not known as a defender which would hurt us more than it hurts
LA, which has Shaq to protect the basket. And he's going to decline while
our stars come into their prime. Overall, it probably doesn't make sense
for us to make a run at him. 

> A few names I'll throw out, as long as we're talking about possible Fortson
> trades:
> 
> Kandi Man (we'd have to throw in something else - Battie?)
 
I don't know how interested the Clippers would be in taking on more
prospective free agents, because they tend to have to overpay them since
it sucks so bad to be a Clipper. Remember that they got Anderson for 
a pretty cheap price (a departing free agent). I don't know if they'd give
up an asset like Olowokandi that is somewhat locked up.

Olowokandi seems to be considered a bust by the media but I wonder what
people in the league think of him. He only started playing organized
basketball less than five years ago, so it's possible most in the NBA
knew that he was going to develop slowly. I wouldn't be surprised if
he still has good value around the league. Pitino has said that he wants
to have size and athleticism at the power positions and I remember that
Olowokandi's scouting report before the draft could have been summed up
as "Has size and athleticism."

Alex