Re: Paul's right

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Alexander Wang wrote:

> (snipped) I think that Pitino's offer of 3 draft picks for Jermaine O'Neal was
> actually
> quite a bold move. For now, draft picks are our best commodity to trade.
> As your team gets better, your players' trade value increases and your
> draft picks decrease. Right now we suck and draft picks will probably get
> us the best relative value. The trade for Abdul-Wahad didn't excite me so
> much but it was another example of using our draft picks to enable a deal.

I'm commenting briefly on the last part of Alex's post, although I agree
fully on the rest that I snipped out.

The missing piece of championship 17 will either come from a lottery
draft or it won't come at all. It won't have come in 1997 from a Scott
Pippen acquisition. It would not have come this summer from Jermaine
Smiley O'Neil.

I'd hope the two extra first-rounders will be the most lasting legacy of
the Pitino era (I've rewatched this summer more than a dozen Y2K game
tapes, and the further familiarity with our retard monkey outbreak
halfcourt defense breeds nothing but evern greater contempt). The
Celtics will play hard and better this year, but they are also in effect
rolling the best odds in the NBA on one of only maybe two true
franchise-center drafts in the past twenty-five years. Twenty-five
freaking years. It will be against this  maybe 15%+ chance at developing
a 15-year Shaq/Duncan antidote on which we desperately dangle our three
first-rounders in pursuit of underachieving, set-for-life, 7-foot
gumby-doll impersonaters like Jerm O'Neil. I wish him the best under 
Bob Knight (hopefully) and Ike Thomas you'd think there is significantly
much more at stake in Boston to waste on even his ideal upside.

Joe

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