Re: All-Star game

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> It's also hard to imagine Ray Allen being left off the team. He's a movie 
> star ("Jesus Shuttlesworth") averaging over 22ppg with precocious stats 
> that might even make a young Reggie Miller envious (top five in FT% at .890,
> top five in 3-pointers made, 9th in 3-point FG% at .432 plus four assists
> and boards per game). He's a great "veteran" shooter at the age of 24.

Yep. The reason I chose Miller and Houston over Ray Allen was because their
teams are more successful. You could probably argue for all three Milwaukee
stars for the All-Star team, but then again if they had three All-Stars,
they should probably have a better record. Anyways, it's clear that there
are more deserving Eastern shooting guards than spots on the All-Star team.
I saw during halftime of the TBS game (Lakers-Jazz) that Danny Ainge had
chosen Paul Pierce for his own personal All-Star team. Of course, he was
accused of pro-Celtic bias. I can see the argument though, because when
Pierce plays the Celtics are 18-14 - the record of a playoff team.

> Pitino has so far signed his young guys longterm before their market value
> explodes, much as Duquette did with Garciaparra and Pedro. He actually 
> "lucked out" in his timing to get Antoine so, uh, "cheap" (roughly 2/3rds 
> of Rasheed's or Juwan's salary) as well as by how the new rookie contracts
> applied just in time to assure Paul Pierce remains affordable and nearly
> impossible not to re-sign (thanks to Ewing's great negotiating acumen).

I think that due to the new bargaining agreement, it's become a much
better strategy to build through youth (instead of free agency) which
helps the Celtics with Pierce. It's interesting when Lamar Odom talks
about how the Clippers better do what he says or he'll walk. Under the
new CBA I don't know if he has that sort of leverage (although Steve
Francis did). 
 
> Pitino also got Potapenko signed longterm for roughly half of what Geiger
> cost  on the open market just a few months earlier, which really surprised
> me and - if you think about - adds to Pot's overall "fair value" (to the
> degree that it leaves more space to sign others like Fortson).

Another good point. It seems like Larry Brown is starting to receive a
lot of criticism from the media for his personnel moves now too, due
to rumors of Hughes being traded. He traded away Van Horn for Tim
Thomas and then dumped him. He drafted Larry Hughes and evidently will
trade him too. He signed Matt Geiger to a big contract and is
reportedly putting him on the block. He spent a first round pick on
Mohammed and isn't playing him. 

I think the difference between Brown and Pitino is that Brown has been
more focused on putting together a veteran group quickly, with the
additions of Hill, Geiger, Lynch, and recently the attempt to add
Mashburn. As Joe mentions, the Celtics have a formidable group of 24
year olds whereas a decent number of 76ers are around 30 years old.
Basically, the 76ers have a shorter window in which they have to
succeed before having to replace their older parts. The Celtics, on
the other hand, could be competitive with essentially this current
group for another decade, assuming that they can find an eventual
replacement for Kenny. Of course, I don't think that Pitino is going
to stand pat with this roster for a decade but I'm glad that he's had
the patience to stick with youth for the most part (besides the trade
for Kenny). In fact, the Fortson for Mercer trade was partially a trade
for the future, due to Denver's draft pick. Hopefully the management
can find more Adrian Griffin type players and use their cap exceptions 
wisely to keep improving the depth. I feel optimistic about the long-term
future of the Celtics.

Alex