Re: Holley: C's Wanted Dooling and Could Have Signed Duncan

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

Looks like Holley's got a new job as the Globe's Gerry Callaghan (Oh joy, 
just what we needed).  Personally, I found the Dooling revelation surprising 
in some respects, but also I had come to believe they wanted him before the 
draft, from what we were reading.  The speculation about the Celtics being 
in the Duncan and Hill sweepstakes had Pitino simply sat on the team he 
inherited from ML and added draft choices is hogwash.  Doing nothing would 
have meant signing Fox, Wesley, Williams, and Walker, in addition to the bad 
ML contracts who are not free agents now, Barros and Minor.  Mercer and 
Billups would also be around, and Holley makes it sound like the best thing 
would have been to simply let them go now.  And, all of this still means the 
team would have had no center whatsoever (Pervis, Dino) for three years.  
Pitino is going to leave Kentucky to coach that group?  The line about 
Holley "loving" Pitino as a coach is so hypocritical it's laughable.

Looking back, I do think we would have been better off doing the 
Orlando/Chicago dump job. But, ML's legacy of 5/6 year contracts to marginal 
players with negative trade value made that next to impossible.  And, I 
didn't exactly hear a lot of people (fans or media) saying at the time, 
"What this team needs to do is sit tight and suffer through three more years 
of being pathetic until we finally clear enough cap room to (maybe) sign an 
imact free agent."  No, we had supposedly already reaped the reward of being 
pathetic.  We were going to be getting two high draft choices along with our 
future star, Antoine.  We all wanted to win, now (i.e. 1997).  And it wasn't 
going to happen with that group of players, and that coach/GM.  We asked 
for, no demanded, a big name coach and a player shake up (i.e. lose Dino, 
Dee).  And we got it (and more).  Aren't we lucky.

Jim
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