Garnett

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

I would do Walker and Pierce for Garnett, definitely, in terms of the swap
of talent. There's an additional issue, which is Garnett's huge contract.
Because of the way the old CBA worked, I think he may be making something
like $30M in the last year, so NBAtalk was reporting that he was eligible
for a $283M contract at the end of his current contract. That number may
just be too huge for Gaston to even contemplate. Of course, Walker may be
eligible for a pretty huge contract himself when his current contract
expires, and Pierce is probably getting the max after this year.

The major differences between Garnett and Walker that don't show up in a
stat line are freakish athleticism and length and fantastic defensive
ability. As bullish as I am on Walker, I know that even if Walker blossoms
into the player of our dreams, getting into great shape, making good
decisions -- he's not going to be as good as Garnett. I was just watching
Garnett on TBS a few minutes ago and the guy is amazing. They threw up an
alley-oop that he caught near the top of the backboard and flushed. He
averaged 23 ppg, 12 rpg, and 5 apg last season and even shot 37% from 3pt
range. And he's only 24 years old. You look at his ppg, rpg, apg and they
steadily improve every year. He's a guaranteed top 5 superstar for years to
come, and the chance of getting one of those comes very very rarely.

But when you throw Moiso, other player and enough draft picks, it starts
getting to the point where you're simply switching teams like the
Timberwolves, except that they'd have Terrell Brandon instead of Kenny
Anderson. We would have to keep enough to keep adding to the team.

Kestas' cautionary comparison with Grant Hill instead of Shaq is a good one
also. I think the reason is because both of them are small forwards, and
it's pretty hard to single-handedly dominate from that position if you
don't have much talent around you. Garnett's only listed at 220 pounds so
he can't just overpower like Shaq can. But I think that down the road, he
has the potential to be more dominant than Hill.

And I could be wrong, particularly if Walker and Pierce come in this season
and takes their games to another level. But you know, I can't imagine being
disappointed in getting Garnett given where we've come from. He's really a
great player for the fans: outrageously athletic, hard working,
charismatic, reportedly a great leader that makes his teammates play
harder. I think that if he were in a place like Boston rather than
Minnesota, he'd be a great magnet for free agents. OK, I'm getting a bit
too excited about a rumor that I dismissed as completely baseless.

Alex