Re: Austin from the Indy Star

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

I'm trying to sort out this Toine-Croshere thing. Let's throw out all the
other players who might be involved, because at its heart, it's Walker for
Croshere. The Celts aren't going to get Jalen Rose. 

First, Croshere. He doesn't have Toine's resume, but he has played for some
great teams. He defers to Miller, Rose and Smits offensively. He has face-up
and post-up games. He is a better perimeter shooter and free throw shooter.
He is a little bigger, and more athletic than Toine. On the other hand, you
could argue he has benefited from Miller/Rose/Smits/Jackson to the point
that he shines in a complementary role only. We've never seen him play a
primary role, so we don't know if he's capable of doing it.

Toine is the more gifted passer (although not as willing) of the two, and a
fierce competitor. He's certainly more versatile. But the easiest thing to
do in the NBA is to put up big numbers on a bad team. Walker has done that.
He scores 20 ppg because the Celtics need him to do it. He certainly isn't
an efficient offensive player. If Walker joins a frontcourt of Smits/Dale
Davis/Jalen Rose/Jonathan Bender/Al Harrington/Derrick McKey, he isn't going
to be playing 45 minutes a night, like he does in Boston. He isn't going to
be the primary option on a team with Rose and Miller. His numbers are going
to suffer. Croshere's will go up. It's the difference between playing for a
good team and playing for a bad team. My guess is if this happens, the
players will have much more comparable numbers next year than any of us
expect. That doesn't mean they're comparable players, necessarily, but that
works both ways. We believe Walker is the better player, but our perception
of both players is skewed by the teams they play for.

In considering all this, I'd guess Pitino would also weigh the "addition by
subtraction" factor with Toine. Maybe, despite his obvious talent, he's
doing more harm than good in Boston. The Fleet fans hate him. The media
hates him. The cloud of negativity around the team has a lot to do with
Toine, fairly or unfairly. Pitino seems to be working to put together a
hard-working, athletic, team-oriented squad, and those are three qualities
lacking in Toine. Maybe Pitino looks at this and decides he may lose 3 ppg
in the deal, but gain better defense and team play, and improved offensive
efficiency.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just thinking out loud. We'll see next week.

Mark