Re: The Ratliff/Mutombo rumor

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

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> I'm with you on the Celtics. Today's article in the Herald even seemed to
> put the brakes on any potential Potapenko dumps.Very, very short-sighted in
> my opinion. First, the Celtics are fortunate that with a healthy Battie and
> Blount, they have a pair of semi-capable big men. Yes, Potapenko gives them
> the bulk the others lack, but is it worth that contract? Of course not. If
> Miami really is offering expiring contracts for Potapenko, the Celts would
> be crazy not to do it. These kinds of offers don't come up in the
> offseason--only now, when teams are desperate to find that "missing piece."
> The idea proposed in the Herald--that the Celts may play Battie at PF
> alongside Antoine when he comes back--sounds great, but we've heard it so
> much before that I'll believe it when I see it.

    I guess I don't view it as a foregone conclusion that VP is the odd man out.
I think Battie makes roughly the same amount as VP for roughly the same length
of service, and his body type is a lot closer to Moiso than to Shaq.
Conceivably, the Celts could as easily settle on keeping Moiso, VP and Blount,
rather than Battie, Blount and Moiso. I do think Battie is having a productive
year, and in fact has been an underrated rebound per minute and high FG% player
for two seasons now. On the other hand VP is surely more durable, demonstrates a
work ethic, is the only "enforcer" on the roster, and has been vital on this
trip as a double-figure scorer who can make up for Blount's scoring woes. If
only Moiso would give us any hint at all that he's not a Poultrino,
headless-chicken El Busto Grande, I think the case would be much stronger to
trade Bat Girl instead of Potsie. Our real roster logjam at the moment is at the
6-11 "weight room away" slot (Battie, McCarty, Moiso).

    My main concern is to see if we can trade Anderson's contract, not any of
our centers. I like Anderson, but we have a chance to actually have cap space
this summer if we can trade him for some expiring contracts and its hard to
argue that losing him would affect chemistry, since he's had practically nothing
to do with any of our wins under Obie. We already have three point guards
besides him on the roster, plus I think there will be some true pointguards
available after the lottery round. Just in the Big East alone you have freshman
Omar Cook's monster stats (9 assists per game), 1st team All American candidate
Troy Bell, John Linehan, Georgetown's Kevin Braswell, Syracuse sophomore Allen
Griffin (6.8 assists). All around the NCAA there are good pointguards. It's a
pipe dream (more like a gigantic bong dream) that we can trade Anderson before
the deadline, but you'd think it would be something Wallace should be working on
around the clock.

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