RE: Offseason thoughts

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

Excellent post Alex.  Two of your questions I think are interesting.

1.  would Wallace trade Walker?  Walker is so bound up into the 
concept of this team's future, and justly, that I don't see this happening
unless a top-five NBA player is involved.  If we could trade Antoine
and our lotto picks for Kobe Bryant or Steve Francis, I would do it.
But do you see that happening?  I'm still amazed that the team entertained
offers for Antoine on the order of Theo Ratliff or Dale Davis,
one-dimensional
2nd tier stars who can't score at all.  Wallace doesn't have the clout to
make
a deal that stupid, so he won't.  (Nor do I think he would if he could.)

2.  I don't see us bringing back Bryant Stith, not if it costs us the
exception.
Stith is a leader, etc. but he doesn't score as much as we need him to; I
would 
rather use that money for a rugged rebounder / low post scorer, such as Nazr
Mohammed, Robert Traylor, or somebody of that ilk.  It really makes me
nervous
that nobody in the front office or the coach ever addresses the fact that we
are 
getting killed on the boards.  A big part of this is Blount's fault, and
Battie's injury;
but it's not like either of those guys are Fortsonesque rebounders anyway.
We need
somebody who knows how to box out, and has the body to do it with.  I
actually
think Bryant Reeves would be a good fit on this team for that reason, if he
didn't 
have such an outlandish contract.  If we did make that deal you mention
below, I 
would be very happy with it.  I think we really need to see what we can do
with 
Vancouver.  Their assets are really what we need right now, including their
high pick.
And don't underestimate the appeal of getting two talented young players for
four or
five years at rent-controlled prices.
Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Alexander Wang [SMTP:awang@MIT.EDU]
> Sent:	Friday, April 20, 2001 3:06 PM
> To:	celtics@igtc.com
> Subject:	Offseason thoughts
> 
> A disappointment missing the playoffs yet again, but I'm optimistic about
> the offseason. Initial points:
> 
> 1. The comparison between Jim O'Brien and George Irvine is tenuous.
> Irvine's performance is hard to evaluate because he lost his team's best
> player. He may have even exceeded preseason expectations. The Celtics, on
> the other hand, should not be losing any key pieces next year. A
> potentially more accurate comparison could be made with Paul Silas,
> actually. When Cowens left, Silas made a valiant but ultimately failed run
> at the playoffs, similar to O'Brien's run. Since then, he's been an
> excellent head coach. Of course, you could argue that Silas really
> inherited a 45 or 50 win team that was only struggling under Cowens
> because
> of the injuries to Rice and Mason. I hope that we get lucky in the lottery
> like Charlotte did, too.
> 
> 2. I'm actually looking forward to seeing what Chris Wallace can do as the
> head personnel guy. Whenever I hear the guy speak, I get the impression
> that he's into these ultra-athletic freak types -- McGrady, Marion, Keon
> Clark, Moiso, and even Billups in terms of his "deep into the playoffs
> point guard body." Of course, there have been good and bad calls in this
> area, but I doubt that he'll be repeating trades for guys like Kenny
> Anderson, for instance, after the way he was talking about Billups' body.
> (That was evidently Pitino's call based on PJ Carlesimo's recommendation
> --
> sigh). I wonder if he will develop a team identity based on high
> athleticism if given free reign over personnel, instead of Pitino's mixed
> identity team-building. In particular, would he trade Antoine Walker, who
> doesn't fit into this identity? Walker for Ratliff was rumored to have
> been
> discussed earlier, and I could see Wallace pushing for this trade. Yeah,
> he's not a proven big-picture guy, but the only unemployed big-picture guy
> that really seemed appealing to me was Bird, who is unproven himself.
> 
> 3. What do the above two points mean for the current roster? Well, since
> O'Brien plays with more of a restricted rotation than Pitino did, that
> affects the salary structure of the team. Under Pitino, we had 10th-12th
> men making $2M because 12 guys would get significant playing time. That
> doesn't really make sense under O'Brien. Our current lineup, not including
> free agents, is:
> 	5. Battie, Potapenko
> 	4. Walker, McCarty, Moiso
> 	3. Williams
> 	2. Pierce
> 	1. Anderson, Brown
> Bringing back Blount and Palacio for small money is an easy decision.
> There's room for a backup swing man so you can bring back Stith if it
> doesn't cost too much, since he makes the 8 man rotation. But if we do, I
> don't see us adding a $4M exception player, especially since Pierce's
> extension and the rookie contracts would already be pushing towards the
> luxury tax. I don't see Carr, Griffin, or Herren returning.
> 	The two guys that don't seem to fit in with my speculation about
> Wallace's
> views are Potapenko and Anderson. Both of these guys would be difficult to
> use to upgrade the team without throwing in a draft pick or two, and
> receiving some sort of bad contract in return. Unfortunately Gaston may
> not
> be very willing to take on a bad contract as lightly as Cuban or Paul
> Allen
> does. Otherwise certain package deals could be appealing -- say Anderson,
> lottery pick, and future pick for Terrell Brandon, or Anderson + McCarty +
> picks for Big Country and Bibby.
> 
> Alex