The Knicks trade

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    Chris Childs, a 6-3 pointguard, is a 6-year NBA veteran and former
CBA MVP. He is 33-years-old this year. By comparison, Mark Jackson--a
possible 2.25 million slot addition--is 35-years-old.

    Childs is a decent 3-point shooter (.360) and good FT shooter (.814)
in the Barros mold. His career numbers are 26.3 minutes, 8.0 ppg 5.0 apg
1.0 steals. Last year he fell to 5.3 ppg on .409FG shooting despite
logging nearly the same number of minutes. He is actually only a career
.413FG shooter. His claim to fame is making the NBA All Interview Team
two seasons ago along with two career triple-doubles, the last one in
1997.

    As for the other reported option, Frederic Weis (wow, imagine two
French speakers on the Celtics, it will be like a hockey team), he is
7-2, 240 and a major bust/project for the Knicks at the age of 23.  Last
year he basically opted out of the Knicks offer, despite the fact that
Ewing and Dudley were both injured, in order to go back to his French
club Limoges (he's been there five years and counting), after getting
abused in his Summer league audition. He has become a good FG shooter
and decent FT shooter for Limoges, but with forgettable
rebounding/scoring stats (like Tsak actually).

    If those are the choices, I'd rather Danny Fortson ends up stuck on
our payroll at the reported 4 million offer, since he deserves a second
(or more accurately a first) chance and with any luck will outlast his
coach's stay in Boston. But since we seem to have decided to re-stock
around proven inconsistent but hyper-athletic bodies for another go with
the "headless chicken outbreak", it just seems there is no place for
Fortson. Boston won't make the playoffs with slow, unathletic players
who can't play Pitino-style defense (oops, I forgot about the
recruitment of Croshere and Jackson).

    At least Fortson reportedly isn't much interested in taking an offer
from Jerry West. Good teams want Fortson, bad teams don't. Go figure! I
do think he will be a nice fit on the veteran Knicks team. He's an
all-out fighter, he's young, and he'll give Boston fits on the boards
next year.

    If another team enters the bidding, maybe Boston can extract
something slightly more useful from the Knicks, like maybe Kurt Thomas
or Charlie Ward. We can also try to sneak in a Pitino for Van Gundy swap
but that would throw the entire salary cap structure out of wack. :-)

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