Derek Strong

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Sorry Paul. I saw that David Aldridge mentioned in his chat
that Orlando would gladly part with one of their first round
draft picks next year to trade Strong for an expiring contract
(like Ellison). For a capped out team, it would roughly be
equivalent to buying a first round pick for $10M, I guess,
since Strong sounds pretty useless nowadays. I don't know
if our team needs another pick (unless it's really high) and
it doesn't necessarily make sense to a team on a budget.
I'm hoping to see Pitino make use of Ellison's expiring 
contract in a bigger trade though. Some teams that could use
a contract like that are Orlando, Chicago, Miami (who might
go towards rebuilding since they're not playing so well), and
Atlanta. The Wizards to some degree, too, but they seem screwed
for a while. Realistically Miami and Atlanta might shoot for 2001
as a rebuilding date in which case Barros and Minor would 
probably be of interest also. In the West, Dallas is a
possibility to go into rebuilding, and San Antonio in another 
year, especially if they lose Duncan and Robinson retires, 
but I don't know if their rosters have that much of interest to
us.

Alex