Re: Another Sad Day In Recent Celtics History

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

For what its worth, my feeling is that a first round pick spread over five 
seasons from 2003 isn't a bad return, even if Boston had made the "right" 
choice in what was a pretty weak 2000 draft. Who knows how long Larry Brown 
will stick around, and Iverson is a daily punching bag.

 From the standpoint of trying to extract any value out of a busted lottery 
pick, I find it really odd to advocate trading a benchwarming rookie 
straight off his first summer league and training camp. Intuitively, I 
think that would send out a huge warning flag that there is something very 
seriously damaged about the developmental prospect in question.

That's probably why you don't see GM's often do this sort of thing, Way's 
indignant protestations aside. Now it could very well be that Pitino had 
wanted to dump Moiso straight out of training camp. That part wouldn't 
surprise me...McCleod's 9.6 ppg would have helped more last season than 
this too. ;-)

Overall, I'm still wondering if Philly added or subtracted to their nucleus 
with the trades. The Philly papers report they really like Matt Harpring's 
toughness, but Jumaine Jones made first team at Shaw (if I recall 
correctly) and they have to replace Ty Hill's 9 rebounds per game. The few 
times I've seen Harpring, I've been pleasantly surprised by his Dan Majerle 
style of game. I thought he was a slow poke, but he's not too bad.

The Moiso dump was no doubt facillitated by Philly's loss of MacCulloch 
last week. The Sixers drafted Dalembert, Alvin Jones and now they have 
Moiso in the mix. We'll see who, if anyone, gets the minutes out of that 
group. Reportedly, Hill's minutes will go mostly to Matt Geiger (who makes 
a ton of money for what he contributes).

I look at that team, and I see a Boston team that can play competitive 
basketball against them. I also think we can start to change our fortunes a 
bit against veteran teams like the Bucks, Knicks, Pacers and Heat. Besides 
Boston, there are now several young teams on the rise. Only a few young 
clubs will develop the good team chemistry and good coaching to advance 
past those veteran teams. I'm very hopeful with the smart play of our 
rookie additions and with Dick Harter bringing some stability and common 
sense to our defense.

Joe

-------