Re: Celtics thoughts

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

John Lyell writes:

> I am not sure I agree with this as far as potential, as far as trade value
> with the base year crap it is probably true. Pierce has shown he can play
> the 2 & 3 spots. Walker hasn't really shown he can play the 3 or 4 spots
> consistently. I do not recall a lot of games where AW has dominated in his
> ballhhanding and passing. He is almost a Joe Smith type , not physical
> enough for the 4 spot, not quick enough for the 3. Hopefully he can either
> beef up to play the 4 or improve his slashing and ballhandling to play the
> 3.

> Pierce is more aggressive to the hope one thing I would like to see AW get
> better at.

I think the missing concept in this response is "potential." I am not saying
that Walker has outperformed Pierce so far in their careers. You are right
that so far, Antoine hasn't proven himself to be a consistent performer. 
But I would argue that Antoine at his best is a much more dominating player
than Pierce at his best. He goes through stretches of games where he
averages over 6 assists per game from the power forward spot, which is
fantastic. Pierce is a fine player who'll probably be one of the best
"2 & 3" guys in the league at some point. However, "2 & 3" guys are the
most common talents in the league, and are generally not dominating players
with the exception of a guy like Jordan who pours in 30+ ppg instead of 
20 ppg - a huge difference. A guy like Antoine can realistically average
20-10-5 (we're talking potential, remember). Honestly I don't worry about
his position that much because if he's in great shape, it's not going to be
much of an issue.

Alex