Re: Time to get rid of Pitino [and Peter May]

[Kestas <Kestutis.Kveraga@Dartmouth.EDU>]

At 09:47 1/30/00 EST, you wrote:
>The May article of Walker on the block is just a rehash of old news. I
really 
>doubt that Walker would be on the block now. Nobody is looking to trade the 
>legitimate stars in the middle of the season. Salarycapwise, it doesn't make 
>sense until the end of the year. Plus, Walker has finally showed signs of 
>fulfulling some of the potential and is playing about as well as he ever
has. 
>May is just rekindling his desire to see Walker traded. Notice he mentions 
>Pierce as a Allstar possible and not Walker. May would love to see Pierce be 
>an Allstar so he could dig at Walker and try to drum up some dissention...

Here's what May actually wrote (pay attention to the language):
[bracketted comments are mine]

"Walker shopped around

One general manager  [Philadelphia's little Machiavelli?]  reports that the
Celtics are still looking for a way to move Antoine Walker [translation -
if the readers think he's been maturing and playing better lately, he's not
- or the Celtics wouldn't STILL be trying to get rid of him]. Walker's
tradeability is hindered by the complicated base-year clause in the salary
cap rules [translation - he'd already be gone, if it weren't for these
pesky salary cap issues]. But one team that might surface as a power broker
is Indiana, which, you may recall, talked about a Walker- Dale Davis deal
last summer. The reason the Pacers might entertain [might entertain(!!!) -
note the implication here, folks - the Pacers might be kind enough to
consider doing the Celtics such a huge favor!!] such a deal is the $4.5
million trade exception they have.
"

I think the very notion that Walker and Davis are somehow equivalent
players that could be 
traded for each other is insulting and shows one or more of the following
things: 
a) May is a cretin
b) May  thinks that his readers are cretins
c) May is so blinded by his hatred for Walker that he could care less
whether the  trade is for Dale Davis or a pair of old socks, as long as
that disrespectful "punk" is gone.
d) all of the above

[I think (d) is the correct answer].

These are the career stats for Dale Davis and Antoine Walker: 

29.7mpg  .546 FG% .000 3ptFG%  .524 FT% 8.9rpg 0.9apg  0.69spg  1.35bpg
9.5ppg 

37.5mpg  .423 FG%  .317 3ptFG%  .639 FT% 9.0rpg 3.2apg  1.44spg  0.65bpg
19.8ppg 

Basically, an almost-31-year-old  single-digit scorer and rebounder for a
23-year-old double-digit scorer and potentially double-digit rebounder.
Steals and blocks balance each other out, and Antoine averages 3x as many
assists. Davis shoots a higher FG%, which is hardly surprising given that
he never strays from his 2-foot range and that most of his shots are dunks,
but Antoine shoots a higher FT%, and can shoot the 3. BTW, if we need an
intimidating rebounding fool, we have one rotting on the bench and being
dangled in trades, while headless chicken run around the court launching
line-drive shots in the general direction of the basket.