RE: The answer on the Philly pick

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Shawn, this trade does not create cap space. The Celtics have no hope of
creating cap space until Kenny (03) and Eric Williams (04) come off the
books. Chris Wallace claims it helps in regard to the luxury tax. Hard to
believe Moiso's relatively small salary makes much of a difference. Besides,
the Celtics probably would be under the threshold even with Moiso on the
books (at least, according to my math). You want to get rid of Moiso... why
exactly? Granted, he wasn't helping the team, but was he hurting? He wasn't
playing enough to hurt the team. They said he was a project when they
drafted him, said from the beginning that he wouldn't help during his rookie
season, and they give up on him already? Except for one unattributed account
from bskball.com, we have no reason to believe Moiso was anything but a
nice, polite, albeit unmotivated kid. He wasn't having a negative effect on
the team. He's not a cancer. He's a 12th man. So why does it help to be rid
of him? Granted, it doesn't hurt, but why does it help? All I'm saying is
that if they don't turn McLeod's expiring contract into something else or
get REALLY lucky with the late Philly pick (that will be a three-year
guaranteed contract-how much you want to bet we see stories about the
Celtics hoping to unload that pick to avoid the three-year guaranteed salary
that comes with it?), then we gave up on Moiso and gave him away for
nothing. You're right about one thing, though-this isn't Ruth for No No
Nannette and we've already wasted too much time talking about it. But I'm
just calling it like I see it.

You go right on believing what you want... the Celtics will make the
playoffs, Walker and Pierce are all-stars, Joe Johnson is rookie of the
year, Joseph Forte is a point guard, Kenny Anderson is in shape, healthy and
has a push-the-ball attitude, Milt Palacio is Eric Snow, every first-round
pick the Celtics make will be a future starter (except Jerome Moiso),
rebounding won't hurt the Celtics, you can win without a good center or
point guard, the draft will fall perfectly in the future so we can land our
center or point guard then, and the Heat and Knicks suck.

The difference between us is that I believe some of those things are true,
but I also believe some of these things are true:

The East is deeper than last year and other teams have improved more than
the Celts, Walker is regressing as a player, Pierce has to prove he can do
it for more than half a season, none of the rookies will exceed what Bryant
Stith gave the Celts, Stith's leadership will be missed, the Celtics still
don't have an NBA starter-quality center or point guard, the roster is too
loaded with 2-guards and small forwards, the Celtics will make mistakes in
the draft just like everyone does (and may have made one or more this year),
rebounding will kill the Celtics, you need to be strong at center and/or
point guard to win big, and the Heat and Knicks still are better than the
Celtics.

I won't tell you which I believe and which I don't, but let me say this... I
believe the Celtics were the ninth-best team in the East last year and I
don't believe they're significantly better this year. I believe they'll be
in the mix for that final playoff spot again. I believe it will be a
dogfight with Indiana, Atlanta and New Jersey. I believe injuries will have
a lot to do with how that shakes out. Is that simple enough? Positive
enough? Too negative?

Mark



 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Shawn Niles [mailto:shizzjr@hotmail.com] 
Sent:	Monday, August 13, 2001 11:43 AM
To:	berrym@BATTELLE.ORG; celtics@igtc.com
Subject:	Re: The answer on the Philly pick

No Mark, it does much more than that. It gets rid of a useless basketball 
player in Jerome Moiso. It clears up cap space because Moiso was on the 
books for 2 more years while Mcleod is only on for one. Maybe Josh O. can 
ask Wallace, but I am sure that the driving force behind this trade was not 
cash. Chris Wallace has basically come out and said that this deal was made 
to free up cap space after this year, not because he is counting on Mcleod 
to become a superstar. Why can't you see this trade for what it is? It 
really isn't that difficult to figure out. This is not trading Babe Ruth so 
that No No Nannette can keep running.


>From: "Berry, Mark  S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>
>To: "'celtics@igtc.com'" <celtics@igtc.com>
>Subject: The answer on the Philly pick
>Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 10:56:15 -0400
>
>From the MSNBC piece by Shira Springer...
>
>"...The third component of the deal was a first-round pick available as
>early as 2003 and protected through the lottery until 2007. But it's
>virtually assumed that Philadelphia will not drop to the lottery in the
>forseeable future, so the pick in all likelihood automatically would fall 
>to
>the Celtics in 2003. . . ."
>
>----end---
>
>This certainly seems to answer the question about the pick. Barring an
>Iverson car crash with Mutombo riding shotgun, it sounds like the Celts 
>will
>automatically get the Sixers' pick this year. That figures to be somewhere
>in the late 20s. Let's hope they use McLeod's expiring contract to work
>another deal; otherwise, this trade does nothing but pad the pocketbook.
>
>Mark


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp