Re: Rumor talk

[opi@unesco.org]

Alex Wang wrote:

> >From Vecsey: "Danny Fortson isn't being shopped by Rick Pitino nearly as
> intently as Eric Williams. Fortson's on the end of his deal. Williams has
> four years left totaling $25M."

The window of opportunity has closed on this deal, IMO. Ideally, we can trade
Williams for two marginal 3-million-a-year headaches, one of whom is releasable
or tradeable. But does anyone think this is possible?

You all know I'm not a big Mercer fan, but Eric Williams is another story. This
is a classic tweener who in a career average 25.7 minutes per game can't pass
the ball (1.4 assists per game, 1.5 turnovers) or shoot from the perimeter (66
career 3-point attempts in 5 abbreviated seasons) to be a viable starting small
forward even in the CBA. As a power guy, he's good for 3.4 rebounds and 0.18
blocks for his career, and that's almost entirely padded by his pre-injury
stats (he's averaged 2.26 boards since his injury).

In the past three seasons, Eric Williams has shot .393, .365 and so far .410
from the field. He'd be hard to trade at 1/3rd of his salary cap figure.

What bothers me about Gaston and Pitino's hypocrisy is that they take on huge
and longterm contracts (correct me if I'm wrong, but Anderson and Williams take
up fully 40% of our total salary cap) in exchange for the windfall of having
50% of the first year of the contract payed in cash by the trading team. Ooh,
boy, we all love cash but gimmeabreak. There's a sucker born every minute, I
guess.

Naturally after the first year, the Celts have to foot the entire bill on what
amounts to being a virtually untradeable player. That's fine if it works out
(we are stuck with Kenny's "1 assist per game for every 1.6 million dollars"
and I'm actually fine with that). But Pitino has the nerve to run to the media
after making these trades to claim how budget-conscious the Celtics are and how
our financial situation forces us to dump Mercer and Fortson (apparently even
before we hear counter-offers from their agents). Frankly, I would be shocked
if either Mercer and Fortson sign for "Eric Williams Money" this off-season
(4-years at 25 million). I would even be shocked if Fortson signs for "Bat
Girl" long-term money.

Joe


RE: Antoine's physique, his arms and shoulder span are almost the same as
Potapenko's at this point. The problem is that he's lost the hops he had in
college. In the 1996 championship game against Syracuse, Antoine finished
two-handed jams off a pass and  half-step to the hoop where his upraised knees
ended up nearly touching the backboard. It was almost like cybertwon in the
video games. IMO, Walker will never have those hops again unless he regains his
teenage physique (something we don't necessarily want). That guy has a
weight-gainers metabolism. The minute he retires in 15-years, I guarantee he
will balloon to Heinsohn, Silas, Nelson proportions almost immediately. Last
season, I saw a game video where he briefly lifted up his jersey to wipe his
face (late in the season when everyone was praising him for "finally" getting
in shape) and you could see he had the jelly-belly of a 35-year-old office
worker ("moi" for example). No question in my mind, once Antoine's body matures
in five years he'll develop a Karl Malone physique as well as Malone's severely
gravity-challenged, below-the-rim game . The question is whether Antoine will
have the same veteran court sense (or have a brilliant point guard and
teammates around him) to exploit weaker, softer players like Battie.

****