Re: Woods moving up, but do Celtics care?

["Jim Meninno" <Jim_Meninno@hotmail.com>]

----- Original Message ----- From: "Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>

> Do they really believe Potapenko-Battie-Blount are the answer? Would they
> really pass on what might be a one-time chance to draft a young impact
> center late in the lottery? These are my concerns with O'Brien and
Wallace.
> They seem satisfied with this collection of backup centers.

I don't think that's what they're saying at all.

''When we're looking at any center in the draft, we would have to say how
long would it take somebody to become our starting center. If the answer is
not in the forseeable future, then I don't think we would take that
player.''

I read that to mean if Brendan Haywood is no better than Vitaly Potapenko,
or if Loren Woods is no better than Tony Battie, then there's no point
taking them.  Not, if it takes DeSagana Diop 2 or 3 years to be as good as
Shaq, it's not worth it.  I think we have to have enough faith in these guys
to believe they wouldn't pass on what they believe is a "young impact
center" no matter where in the draft he was available.  However, some of
these guys could be so raw that you're talking 4, 5 or 6 years before they
are putting their games together.  If that's the case, they would have to be
very special players indeed to be worth the wait.  Can you imagine what the
Boston press and fans would be saying about Diop after three non-productive
years?

What I'm taking away from these comments is that Wallace believes the really
good centers will be gone by the time he drafts.  That could be a
smokescreen, but I kind of doubt it.

Jim