re: Palacio and Griffin

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

> From: "Jim Meninno" <jam@london.com>

> I have to agree with Mark and Kestas.  No way should Palacio get $3-4m 
> per year, even if it is only two years.  The team has been balking at 
> giving Bryant Stith that kind of money for two years, and he's an 
> established veteran.  [...]  If they are talking about that kind of money,
>  I hope the second year is a team option.

But Stith isn't a point, Jim.  I think C's management looked at the team's 
point guard blues last year and decided to lock someone up.  I was 
thinking the team could go one of two ways: 1) grab as many decent points 
as possible, possibly including Herren and Milt in order to forestall 
those kinds of problems again, or 2) pick one of our point guard free 
agents and lock him up.  With three new signings and and the very limited 
room on the roster, 1) wasn't going to work out, and Milt clearly won out 
over Herren last year.  (Too bad for Chris Herren -- injuries really 
limited his opportunity -- and I, for one, would have liked him on the 
team.  Oh, well.)

I agree that a team option on the second year would be a great idea, as 
well as Alex's suggestion that a front-ended contract is logistically 
better.

>  As long as I brought up Bryant Stith, does anyone else wonder why they 
> prefer him to Adrian Griffin?  Adrian is younger, but has just as mature 
> and professional an attitude.  Griffin would certainly come much cheaper.
>   Do Stith's years really give him that much of a presence in the locker 
> room? 

I wondered about this myself.  Only things I could come up with were that 
maybe AG never showed the coaching staff that he was going to rebound from 
the miserable year he had last year, and they prefer Stith as the cliched 
"veteran presence" over Old School.  Maybe it's all about personality -- 
to me, AG might be more of an example kind of guy, maybe Stith is more 
vocal in the locker room.  Damn shame that the team can't find places for 
pieces that seem to fit well (Herren, Griffin) even if they are low men on 
the totem pole and have to keep guys who just haven't brought it (Kenny, 
McCarty, Moiso).  Such is the NBA, I guess.  Too bad.

Regards,

(The Celtic "Tird",
  Celticus "tirdius")