Re: Virtue Rewarded; or, Ozersky Inside!

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

Just a few minor comments:

At 02:03 PM 8/7/01, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
>3)      The comments on Walker and the centers were interesting. If only
>Walker actually faced up and drove on these guys more often! Did he address
>the 10 three-pointers a game? And I think Walker and our centers don't
>complement each other at all-if you're going to play Toine at PF, you need a
>monster at center; and if you're going to play VP/Blount/Battie at center,
>you need a monster at power forward. If this is a pitching staff, it's the
>Rangers'.

Well, to continue the baseball analogy, when it comes to your pitching 
staff, it's always nice to have two aces, but that's pretty hard to find. 
These "monsters" are tough to come by. I agree, the best thing to put next 
to Walker is a real stud center that blocks shots, defends the opponent's 
best inside player, and tears down rebounds. How many are there in this 
league? This is the reason you always see draft picks being spent on 7' stiffs.

>4)      The Moiso trade... the pick is fine and all, but I'm like everyone
>else-I wish we knew the conditions. It's probably not worth much. As for
>saving money for Blount and Palacio... good grief, how much will they be
>worth? We are talking about the players who averaged 3.9 and 6 points
>respectively, and 3.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists respectively last year,
>right? I know they were starters in Boston, but what would they be anywhere
>else? Backups? Third string? Palacio was outplayed by Khalid El-Amin in
>summer league play, and he has a two-year contract, so his salary is locked
>in next year (so clearing Moiso's salary has no impact). I like Blount's
>potential, but let's be realistic... if we start clearing salary so we can
>sign him to a Todd McCullough or Calvin Booth contract, then something's
>wrong. Everyone can see those deals are bad for the teams that made them;
>wouldn't the same be true for the Celtics?

Yeah, I don't necessarily understand the statement about Palacio being up 
since we do have an option on his contract. As for Blount, maybe if he gets 
the McCullough offer, you have to let him go, assuming he didn't have a 
breakout season. But you don't want to just have to let him go because some 
other team offers $2M and you're just too close to the luxury tax. That's 
where maybe that $1M+ could make a difference. Or maybe you can offer some 
other free agent - a point guard? - the full exception instead of $3M.

And Blount only averaged 3.9 ppg and 3.6 rpg, but remember, you're talking 
about how we traded away Moiso who basically averaged nothing. If you're 
using stats as a proxy for value, you're not being consistent here. You're 
complaining about the idea of trading a guy who was completely unproductive 
to create space to pay a guy who was marginally productive. I know, the 
deal will probably take at least one year to have any benefit, and you want 
help right now.

Alex