Re: Bulpett: C's can wait for Gasol; Murphy gets second C's workout

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

At 12:35 21/06/01 +0200, j.hironaka wrote:
>http://www2.bostonherald.com/sport/basketball/cs06212001.htm
>C's might wait for 7-footer: Gasol could be a year away
>by Steve Bulpett
>Thursday, June 21, 2001
>
>(...)And if Gasol is still on the board at 10, the Celtics will not be 
>frightened off by the fact he'll be a year away.
>``If we select him, it is with the assumption that he will not be in 
>uniform for us in this coming season,'' Wallace said.

I still don't know the actual numbers, but presumably a rookie 10th pick 
who pans out will in year 5 see a pay raise from around 2 million per year 
to around 10 million year. If PG stays in Barcelona an additional year, he 
won't see that pay raise until year 6.

Admittedly this is the absolute best case scenario for PG, but when you do 
the math it seems the 2.2 million buyout he'll needs to pay out of pocket 
seems like a prudent investment. That's also assuming his final year 
Barcelona playing contract isn't gigantic, but I'm assuming it is the last 
year of a modest rookie contract he signed as a teenager.

I think the 7-9 teams might be scared off from drafting Gasol because of 
Rudoy's ultimatum (top-6 or else he's returning to Barcelona). If PG gets 
past number six, I think the only scenario possible is a team trading up 
for him or we get him at 10. For some reason I doubt PG's the absolute 
number one guy on our wishlist at #10. If that guy is gone, then yeah we 
might trade up to block another team from getting Gasol. But Wallace seemed 
to make it perfectly clear we won't trade both #10 and #11. He definitely 
wants two players in the top 11 among this year's crop.

Lastly, Peter May's article today reports Gasol's season stats were 11 
points and 5 rebounds. Is that true? I've seen his scoring numbers reported 
at closer to 20ppg.

Joe

p.s. Did anyone sign up for the 30-day free trial for NBAtalk rumors on 
ESPN? Apparently you have to phone in your cancellation within 30-days, and 
we don't have 800 numbers here so (for now) I cheaped out. ;-)  If someone 
has signed up, I hope they will continue posting Celts-relevant draft info 
to the list (it's still technically "free" so I don't see the ethical 
issue). Terrible timing for them to turn into an expensive paid 
subscription site, although I'm happy for the site's owners that they can 
presumably make some decent money now. I grew fond of that Website after 
Mark B. and others spoke up in defense of it, even though it is mostly a 
daily roundup of what local papers are reporting on the draft.