Thoughts on the deals/celtics

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

Mark Cuban has moved past quirky right into loopy in my book. He traded away
all kinds of possible salary cap space for Juwan Howard... because he was
turned down by Seattle in offering the same package for Vin Baker??? I don't
know who's crazier, Cuban for offering that package for Baker, or Seattle's
GM for saying no. The crazy thing is, it wasn't just a salary dump. The
Wizards actually got a couple of decent prospects in Alexander and Thomas
along with all that salary cap room, and they can work with Laettner in the
summer on a sign-and-trade deal, if they so choose (although they'll most
likely let him walk to clear the salary). This one shocked me, because I
thought the only guys as untradeable as Kenny were Baker, Howard and Larry
Johnson.

How do the Knicks do it? How do they convince teams to give them decent
players for their garbage? I don't care what kind of defense Mark Jackson
plays, the Knicks are better with him at point guard instead of Childs, Ward
or Sprewell. Why did the Raptors make that deal? For the first-round pick? A
pick that's going to be late in the round and probably worthless? Aren't the
Raptors still in position for a solid playoff spot? Terrible deal for
Toronto. Their other move, picking up Jerome Williams, was much better. 

If the Celts really had teams knocking their door down for Vitaly (as BSG
claimed today), and they didn't find a way to make it work, it was a huge
mistake. Like Paul said--Vitaly is a backup center with a bad contract.
Also, couldn't the Celts put together something better than Childs and a
late first-rounder for Jackson? And if the Bulls really were willing to take
McCarty, the Celts should have offered to pay his salary just to clear the
number off the cap. Can you believe any team asked about McCarty?

Of course, the Sixers were the big winners yesterday. Mutombo makes them
legit title contenders.

Finally, another note on Toine's threes. He tried 10 more last night--10 of
his 17 shots. He made 4--that's 40 percent, which seems like a good
percentage. But was it really? That's what I mean by reaching the point of
diminishing returns. The bottom line on Toine is this: If they can't get a
power forward to play alongside him so he can shift to small forward
full-time, then he has to be traded. You can't have a power forward playing
like this. You just can't. Everyone marvels at what Toine can do, but he's
not doing what you need a POWER FORWARD to do. This is an extreme example,
but look at McHale. He couldn't dribble, pass or shoot from long range
(early in his career) anywhere near as well as Toine. But he did everything
a power forward needs to do--score in the low post at a high percentage,
rebound, defend, block shots. Versatility is great, but you still have to
handle the nuts and bolts of a position, and Toine isn't doing it at power
forward. Move him to small forward, and maybe it's different.

Mark