Re: Not Jermaine

[Thndrblt31@aol.com]

mark berry brings up some excellent points about the draft being a crap 
shoot.  jermaine o'neal is the devil we know when compared to the likes of 
O2, tsak, or dermarr johnson.  and it also seems to be a trend appearing 
where recently drafted high schoolers have been coming into their own.  take 
a look at tracy mcgrady and rashard lewis.  o'neal could be the next.

i would endorse this trade if one more thing happened.  we also received 
portland's 1st round pick.  there we could grab the likes of a jamal crawford 
(a 6-6 pg/sg), a corey hightower (6-8 sg), or a chris carrawell.  i could see 
the lakers drafting someone like crawford to go with kobe in the backcourt 
and that isn't a good thought at all.   take a look at three of houston's 
1998 draft picks: bryce drew, michael dickerson, and cuttino mobley.  mobley, 
a second rounder, turned out better than both of his other fellow rookies.  
both crawford and hightower have tons of potential and could be better than 
more touted players such as courtney alexander, morris peterson, etc.

so it would be the 11th pick and cap fodder (mccarty?) for o'neal and 
portland's pick?  too bad we can't contact pitino or wallace.

- thndr