Re: Adding talent

[Alexander Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Paul writes:

>And I've seen nothing - I know you disagree here Alex - which tells me that
>the win total is going up this year. I keep coming back to one of your
>earlier posts Alex. Ricky has three assets: Draft picks, Pierce, and
>Walker. Dale Davis for O'Neil? If Pierce is such a hot item I can't believe
>Ricky couldn't move Pierce and those drft picks for a "Dale Davis +" trade.
>Something like that. The "unbelievable" trades are out there, apparently.
>Pitino's told us. He's been dealing mediocrity ever since he got here.
>Mediocre players moved for other mediocre players and nothing else. For all
>that money and genius Ricky is turning out to be simply a gutless, failure
>of a gm. He has to prove other- wise...THIS YEAR.

I can believe that Pierce + draft picks could have been moved for Dale Davis.
I don't think that's the sort of trade that is good for the team. I think that
Davis is a solid player who deserved the nod at All-Star last year (partially
due to the weakness of the East in that position though). Still, he's 31 years
old, is better suited for power forward (where Antoine is), and is more of
a supporting player. The Celtics without Pierce don't have that much talent
for him to be supporting. If you look back last year though, Walker (and
maybe Mercer) were supposedly on the block for Dale Davis and Jalen Rose.
That seems like a pretty decent trade in hindsight. Potapenko, Davis, Rose,
Pierce, and Anderson seem pretty close in ability to Smits, Davis, Rose,
Miller, and Jackson. I think that lineup would have made the playoffs last
year.

One thing that I do agree with is this. If this team goes through another
35 win
season, Pitino should quit at the end of the season. I don't think he's
going to
make a big trade because those generally don't happen out of thin air --
there's
usually some strong motivation like a disgruntled star. For us to
participate in
the trade, that star has to want to come to Boston. Even so, he's added
several
players that are supposed better fits in his system (Brown, Pack, Carr,
Moiso, 
Blount). He has some draft picks to work with to upgrade the team either now
or near the deadline. With or without a big trade, he needs to deliver this
year.

Alex