No Subject

    As players get healthy again and if Moiso has a decent second-half  role, I
think we'll see more of our vaunted team depth. A case can be made, also, for
drafting a marquee scorer at small forward or shooting guard next summer. I have a
feeling the top five picks will all be big men, leaving the cream of the crop at
the wing positions available when we pick.

    And no, as much as I criticized Moiso even before Boston drafted him, I don't
think we should have drafted a potential headcase like Courtney Alexander over him
except to trade him down to Dallas (which gave Orlando an additional first rounder
in the bargain I believe). Before we make myopic comments about Moiso being a
major Poultrino bust (just wait, the local newspapers and talk shows are going to
start in on that soon), it is worth mentioning that every rookie first round pick
is struggling this year without exception.

    Rookies shooting UNDER 38% from the field include such top names as Kenyon
Martin, Marcus Fizer, Desmond Mason, Courtney Alexander and Mike Miller (all guys
who have advocates on our list). Players contributing less than 5ppg so far
include Desmond Mason, Stromile Swift, Chris Mihm, DerMarr Johnson, Keyon Dooling,
DeShawn Stevenson and Joel Przybilla (he's at 1.0 ppg in six games).

    If fact, the league probably shouldn't even offer a ROY award this year if
things keep up. (2nd round picks Eddie "Brick" House of Miami and the Stephen
Jackson of the Nets are the leading candidate so far).

Joe

p.s. (non-Celts)  In Japan, if there isn't a worthwhile candidate for ROY in
baseball, the league just simply decides to cancel the award that year. That
happened this year in fact in Japan's Pacific League. BTW, the Red Sox missed out
on a truly gifted talent in Ichiro Suzuki, who won the first of his seven straight
and counting Japan batting titles as a teenager (he batted over .380 this year at
age 27) and is a perennial Gold Glove center fielder and good athlete who runs the
100 in under 11 seconds.  He's the first Japanese batter to try out for the Major
Leagues, following the success of a couple of pitchers. The Red Sox bid for him,
but the Mariners got him. The price was probably too steep for the risk (I think
15 million for the transfer fee alone), although the Red Sox would have probably
sold 15 million baseball jerseys and caps overnight if they had won the bid.

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