Trades

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Enough about "Spintino", the trading deadline is coming up! Pitino was
quoted as saying that a lot of teams were tied up in the Larry Hughes
sweepstakes, and that more trade possibilities should open up. As a 
"peace offering" to Joe, Kestas, and Tom, I'll criticize Pitino for
this statement: Shouldn't Pitino have realized this and been patient
before he shipped off Danny Fortson? Not bad, huh? OK, now let's talk
trades.

I'd see three needs for the Celtics right now:

1) A center or center/power forward with size, defensive skills, and 
shotblocking. Ideally you'd want rebounding and at least a bit of
offense in the package, but those types are pretty hard to acquire
in trade. 

2) A swingman with decent size who can shoot the three-pointer with
quickness and accuracy. This can be a relatively one-dimensional 
backup quality player who can take minutes away from the McCarty,
Williams, and Cheaney group. Someone who could give us 8 ppg in
limited minutes and hit 40% on threes would make a difference on
this team.

3) A backup point guard with size and defensive ability, who is skilled
enough to bring the ball past halfcourt without being terrorized by
the Mookie Blaylocks of the league. If this player has three-point
range, all the better.

The last two needs can be filled with relatively low first round draft
picks (and time for them to develop), the $2M exception, or trades
involving Fortson. My personal preference would be to wait until the
offseason to try to fill these needs with the draft and free agency.

The first need is something that Pitino has said won't come from the
draft or free agency. You can get a starter-quality swingman with the
$2M exception but as far as I know, nobody got a starter-quality 
center. You can sometimes get a starter-quality center in the 
mid-to-late 1st round of the draft but usually they take three or
four years before they are servicable. I don't think the Celtics
are planning on waiting that long before they upgrade.

That leaves trades. First of all, I think that if the Celtics said,
"You can't have Walker or Pierce or any draft picks", then the
remainder of their roster probably wouldn't be sufficient to get a
good center. One thing that I never hear mentioned is the prospect
of Pierce getting traded. People talk a lot about Walker getting
traded but he's really the less tradable one: he has the big salary
and base-year restrictions.

Now Pierce is already one of the best shooting guards in the league
in only his second year. He's signed cheap to the new rookie contract.
Well, why would you even consider trading him then? Well, you always
ask what you're getting back first. Back when Miami had Glen Rice,
most fans probably thought, why would we ever trade Rice, one of the
top offensive weapons in the game? Of course, if it's for Mourning,
it looks awfully good. I don't expect us to get a total rip-off like
that - a comparable trade would be getting Duncan for Pierce. 
But you can probably imagine a package that would be pretty tempting.
Mark Berry has mentioned Olowokandi. How about Olowokandi and Derek
Anderson for Pierce and Eric Williams, say? Not good enough? What if
they throw in a future first round pick? Tempting. What about the
2000 pick? That would be very hard to refuse although I doubt they
offer it.

The Clippers get a sure star to play alongside Odom - their own
version of Pippen and Jordan, locked down to rookie contracts, which 
or the Clippers is always a primary factor. They get value for Derek
Anderson who they probably don't have any hope of keeping anyway.
We get a center who is a project and a gamble but possibly a 15 pt,
10+ reb, 2.5 block inside presence down the road and a talented
combination guard who is a perfect fit for the Pitino system.  
Of course, the Clippers are one of the few teams that Antoine could
be traded to, so that would be an alternative. But my main point is,
if you really want a good big man, you have to at least consider
Pierce a possibility to be traded. 

OK, there are very few centers in the league that are worth trading
Pierce for though. I can't dream up of another plausible scenario
right now, except for trading Pierce during the draft for one of the
top college centers. I don't follow college ball much so someone else
could comment on that. So let's exclude Pierce and Walker for the
rest of the discussion. Some combination of Fortson, Battie, Vitaly,
even Anderson, and first round draft picks might be sufficient to
snag a center of the future. Supposedly everyone but Jamison (and
now Hughes) is tradable on Golden State so maybe Dampier could be
had at the right price (is he BYC though?). Or what about Foyle?

How about Jermaine O'Neal from Portland? Can any Portland list members
comment on his ability to play center (although he's also a base-year
player I believe)? Cato is rumored to be available but that seems
somewhat doubtful to me.

Alex