mindless trade babble

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

I myself am not personally in favor of breaking up this team (I get this
vibe that we'd regret losing Fortson for years to come), but the smoke
signals coming out of Celts front office - as interpreted by Peter May,
Bulpett, Coffman  even Jackie McM - seem to indicate otherwise.

Here are a couple of names to think about in some rumored trades:
(contract info from Patricia Bender)

*********
Fortson (in last year of 3yr, $4.45 mil total rookie deal) to Lakers?

A big question here is who would we want - would Derek Fisher (PG 6'1"
200lbs) be someone to groom for the future behind Kenny? (not in my
opinion, but it would it be better than Horry?) 
Fisher averages: 26.1 mpg .365 fg% .336 3fg% .689 ft% 2.1 rpg 3.1 apg 0.9
topg 8.3 ppg
Horry averages: 21.2 mpg .420 fg% .207 3fg% .773 ft% 5.4 rpg 1.6 apg 1.05
bpg 5 ppg
Fisher contract: 7 yrs at $30 million total expires in '06
Horry contract: 7yrs @ $35 million total expires in '04

Neither player is terribly appealing to me.

*************
Antoine (1st year of $76.59 mil deal that expires in '05, this year's
salary: $9 mil) to Indiana?

Twon is in his first year of his new max contract so he is a base year
compensation player meaning we can only receive 1/2 of this years salary
($4.5 mil) back and the other team must be able to fit that 1/2 under their
cap. Indiana does have a $4.5 mil exception left over from sending Davis to
Toronto, making the cap numbers far more manageable. 

[This the Traded Player Exception: a credit that teams may use in order to
help make future trades work under the salary cap. Teams may acquire one or
more players
with this exception, have up to a year after the initial trade to use the
credit, and
may add together their credits from different trades (this is the only time
that multiple salary
cap exceptions may be combined). A team receives this credit when it is
over the cap and makes a
trade and takes on less salary than it gives up. Whatever the salary
difference is, plus $100,000, is the credit that the team
may use towards a future trade. For example, if a team trades a $2 million
player for a draft pick, it then has a $2.1 million credit that it may use
in a future trade. 
Note that this credit can be used for trades only -- it cannot be used to
sign free agents.]
http://www.members.home.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#73

Bird is a fan of Twon's and is also expected to move upstairs to GM after
this year. Twon would give them immediate help, the big Q is who would
Pitino want?

How about the high-schooler Jonathan Bender? 
He seems tailor made for a PitinoBall team (even skinnier than Waltah?): 
Position: Forward Born: 1/30/81 Height: 6-11 Weight: 202 lbs.
Made his NBA debut, tallying 10 points (4-7 FG) and 2 blocks in a 136-88
win over Cleveland on 12/10.
Activated from the injured list after missing 18 games with a broken bone
in his left wrist.
Bender has played all of 40 minutes this season. 
Bender's contract: 4yr rookie deal @ $10,368,785 total and team-opt in '03

Bender would have time to develop behind VP, Battie and (perhaps) Fortson.
(Of course, a trade of Twon wouldn't preclude also trading Fortson
somewhere else, but it might make his salary demands easier to fit under
the "budget").

Another player worth roughly $2.1 mil plus-or-minus $1.35 mil (15% of 9
mil) would have to be included to make the numbers add up since, if my
calculations are correct, Bender "only" makes $2.4 mil (2,411,345) this
year. Of course we could toss in more players on our side to try and
balance things out.

Travis Best (4 yrs @ $13 million total expiring in '02) might be the backup
PG we so sorely need. Of course, he is the backup PG that the Pacers also
sorely need. He's 28 yrs old, 5-11, 182 lbs and from Georgia Tech.
Best's #s: 19.6 mpg .459 fg% .292 3fg% .868 ft% 1.6 rpg 3.5 apg 1.2 topg
8.1 ppg

Best's salary is a bit high but I think it fits within the 15% wiggle room
of the total salaries involved in the deal, particularly if Overton is also
sent to Indy. 

Other options?: 
6-9 235 Austin Croshere (FA this year - last year of a 3yr /$4,020,720)? 21
mpg, .412 fg% 6.1 rpg 9.8 ppg 
6-9 230 Al Harrington (another high-schooler)? 18.5 mpg .452 fg% 3.4 rpg
7.3 ppg 4 yr rookie deal for $3,674,502 total expires '02

Does Indy do this? The (potentially) only lose a back up PG this year for 
a dynamic force in Twon, who is locked up for years to come. If they are 
going to make it with their current crew - and with LB as coach - this is
year.