RE: OK, I've collected my thoughts...

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

	Joe, I really think you're being a little unfair. A "predictable
Pitino athleticism-over-brains type of draft pick?" His first draft, he got
terribly unlucky. It really was a two-player draft. He took Billups and
Mercer-other guys tossed around were Battie and Antonio Daniels. Now, what
he did with those players once he got them is open to plenty of criticism,
but there just weren't a lot of attractive options at the time. Sure, now
McGrady looks good, but he would have been more of an "athleticism over
brains" type than Billups or Mercer, wouldn't he?

	His second draft was Pierce, and he was hoping for Nowitzki. These
are basketball players, not athletes. He traded his next pick (probably
Shawn Marion) for Vitaly Potapenko, definitely not an "athlete." I think an
argument can be made that Pitino hasn't put enough of an emphasis on
athleticism over the last three years.

	I just think Pitino is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't by
some on this list. I'm the first to say the Anderson and Fortson
acquisitions were awful, and Vitaly debatable. But I don't see any
longstanding pattern of choosing athletes who can't play over good players.
Battie for Travis Knight? I can't stand Battie, but I'd still do that deal.
McCarty was effective in his role during his first season, and I think he
still can bring something to the team.

	I don't know if Moiso will be great, good or awful, but neither do
any of us. Better than Alexander? Who knows? And why would Pitino want to
get in on some of the trades that went down (you mentioned Harvey), if the
players involved didn't interest him? We don't need more kids on this team,
unless they're going to be stars or fit a specific need (Przybilla). Like I
said, I would have tried something to get Przybilla, but it didn't happen.

	Now, it sounds like Pitino is going to go all-out for free agents
and trades. Free agency may surprise us, because Orlando is going to use up
its space on two or three big-time guys, and Chicago will scoop up another
couple. No one wants to play for the Clippers. There go your teams with cap
room. I think the Celts might find a bargain guy who slips through the
cracks, or be able to work a sign-and-trade for one of those guys. We'll
see.

	Let's just wait to see what he does before writing off the season
the morning after the draft.

Mark

 

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Joe Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
	Sent:	Thursday, June 29, 2000 11:07 AM
	To:	Berry, Mark S; celtics@igtc.com
	Subject:	Re: OK, I've collected my thoughts...

	"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

	> Having said that, if you're going to gamble in the draft, I would
think you
	> could
	> do a lot worse than taking a shot on an athletic 7-footer who runs
like a
	> deer, is left-handed (always a plus for big guys) and can play
three
	> positions if needed.

	Well, are you referring to Waltah? :-)   He is approximately the
same size and
	weight as Moiso, plays three positions, and fits the rest of the
description
	above except that he has two left hands. :-) Until proven otherwise,
I think we
	should regard this as a predictable Pitino athleticism-over-brains
type of draft
	pick. Let's admit this deal has several "deja-vu-all-over-again"
precedents.
	Explosive but inconsistent athleticism can prove to be utterly
valueless,
	whether you are talking about the high effort McCarty or the
top-three lottery
	pick caliber Tony Battie, both locked under longterm contract. Or
Keon Clark for
	that matter. Pierce is looking more and more like a lucky pick
(Pitino didn't
	even work him out) in an unbroken string of draft day El Bustos that
fit a very
	similar pattern.

	Plus anyway that you do the math, all Pitino had to do was pick up
the phone and
	he could have had the big OO (or Sesar), a Dallas lottery pick next
year and 3
	million in cash. Or Courtney Alexander.

	One can come up with all kinds of upbeat scenarios, but I'll be
happy if Moiso
	has a more productive year next season than Courtney Alexander or
Danny Fortson
	(the two people we essentially dumped so far just to get him).
Honestly, I do
	hope he outplays both those guys. We'll see.

	> I was frustrated last night because I thought there were deals to
be made to
	> make us better,
	> and we didn't make them. Milwaukee added Jason Caffey and Joel
Przybilla to
	> a team that only lacked interior defensive presence (sound
familiar?), and
	> they only gave up Jason Collier and a future first-rounder, while
dumping
	> unwanted Tractor Traylor and J.R. Reid. Watch out for the Bucks.
That's the
	> kind of deal I would have liked to have seen the Celts make.

	You're absolutely right here. Milwaukee is heading toward glory days
with three
	legitimate All Stars on the roster (Big Dog, Cassell and Ray Allan)
and now a
	role-playing center and power forward at least as promising on paper
as anything
	the Celtics have ever had under Pitino. But Milwaukee has nothing to
crow about
	compared to how so many other teams in the East have helped
themselves. Look at
	Orlando. If they get Duncan to join Eddie Jones or Grant Hill on the
roster--and
	who wouldn't want to play on a team with so many unselfish, hustling
	overachievers, a great player's coach like Doc Rivers plus an
additional 10+
	million in cap space to spend after they sign you?--they can
actually challenge
	the Flakers in the finals (on paper). We should applaud our Eastern
rivals and
	realize that our Celtics President was a bit over his head last
night.

	An 8th seed looked like a relative no-brainer last season compared
to the
	upcoming season. Until proven wrong, I'm just happy that this draft
quite
	possibly sealed Pitino's fate next year as well as Gaston's will to
keep the
	franchise. I'm flabbergasted that none of Boston's supposedly tough
	sportswriters failed to ask Pitino whether drafting Moiso is an
admission that
	he jumped the gun in signing Battie last year to the long-term deal,
or whether
	the Ron Mercer for Eric Williams straight-up deal (since Pitino
could apparently
	care less about next year's draft picks) looks bad in retrospect
given that
	Williams probably may end up with a higher, longer-term salary than
Mercer.

	For a team president that whines so much about cap constraints, why
on earth do
	we even have an Eric Williams, Kenny Anderson and Knight/Battie
added to the
	roster under his watch? If you look back on the spin (e.g.
"Spintino") these
	trades were actually made largely in order to shed bad contracts.
Correct me if
	I'm wrong but those three contracts (around 15 million?) eat nearly
one half of
	our cap for the next three years or so. Pitino is over his head. I
say they
	invite him back to Miami to "consult" with the Hurricanes AD, then
secretly ship
	him to Cuba in the popular "Elian" holloween costume.

	****