Re: Kwame Brown, Jason Williams considering jump

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

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> Read a report this morning that said Brown is close to going pro, and Jason
> Williams is coming around to the idea. By my count, that would put the
> "stud" list at nine, with someone sure to push one or more of those guys
> down to the Celts (maybe Battier crashes that group, or Tinsley, or Haywood,
> or Dajuan Wagner, if he declares). Let's hope this is true, because it could
> mean a Zach Randolph or Dasagna Diop (or both!) fall right in the Celts'
> lap.

Great news.

I definitely favor drafting big men with a naturally wide base in the Brendan
Haywood, Zach Randolph or Dasagana Diop mold, rather than by adding yet one more
poodle dog to our collection of skinny rear-end, "weight room away" rubber
chicken bodies like Moiso, McCarty, Battie, Travis Knight. There's always more
to choose from in our draft range, most notably Tyson Chandler (now listed at
195 pounds by ESPN) as well as Loren Woods and Michael Bradley to a slightly
lesser degree.

I'm not saying we shouldn't carefully scout and consider drafting all of these
guys, but there is an element of "fool me twice, shame on me" going on here. Up
until now, none of our athletic headless chicken guys have EVER earned even 10
minutes of playing time at power forward and these were all lotto picks on par
with ours this year or costly trade/free agent acquisitions (Knight, McCarty)
that required giving up an asset in return. It is these skinny butt guys who
have turned Antoine into our default power forward. We've already got a bench
full of them.

One last thing. If I were Chris Wallace I would gladly trade either Celtics
captain and a draft pick in exchange for a third pick in the draft this year.
You all know how much I love Pierce and Walker (I do), but I think we would get
anywhere from a 100% to 200% return on the investment no matter which of the Big
Three we ended up with (Curry, Eddie Griffin or Yao Ming).

Eddie Griffin, a possible third pick overall, is arguably a greater "can't miss"
prospect than any power forward in decades. Not even Chris Webber's college
numbers are in that ballpark.

If Yao isn't eligible, then Jason Williams becomes the top-three consolation
prize (not bad), with I guess Jason Richardson looming not far behind in the
eyes of many GMs. A decent argument can still be made to trade Pierce (or
Walker) for Jason Williams, although I'm on the fence there. Meanwhile Jason
Richardson is at least 1,000 hours of jumpshooting practice away from being a
Vince Carter/ Paul Pierce level prospect, but he does sound fairly committed and
coachable. His season really ended on a sour note, though, shut down by Richard
Jefferson.

BTW, the only reason I put Walker's name inside brackets is because it is too
far-fetched to think we can move a 71 million contract for a top draft pick, no
matter how much cap junk was thrown into the bargain.

My actual overall point is that several teams, including Boston, might actually
benefit by trading the current best player on their NBA rosters for the rights
to a Big Three pick this year. I think this could be the kind of draft that
changes the balance of power in the NBA. A once in a decade kind of thing. It
ticks me off that Jerry Krause is going to draft one more major building block
in the Bulls rebuilding program. If the Bulls join the Lakers and return to the
NBA penthouse before Boston does, it would be really demoralizing. The ping pong
balls better deliver some serious justice this time, although I'm not counting
on it.

Happy Good Friday and Easter!

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