Wallace's philosophy

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

Got this quote from
http://www.nba.com/celtics/news/draft2001_point.html?nav=ArticleList

The Celtics are not about to relinquish a valuable pick simply to fill a
hole. 

"We will primarily look for talent," said Celtics General Manager
Chris Wallace. "Some people may want a center or a point guard -- we just
want more players. The position is a little bit irrelevant. Therefore, some
of the needs of this team may not be met in this draft; I will be up front
about that."

It's a relief to me that Wallace is thinking this way. I know that it seems
that a team that primarily started Mark Blount and Randy Brown at C and PG
seems to desperately needs help at those positions. But let's face it, any
center prospect that has a solid shot at being starter quality in the NBA
is probably not going to last until 10. If a worthwhile one does drop, then
sure, grab it, but if it doesn't, we certainly don't want to reach. And the
point guard crop doesn't seem worth reaching for at 10-11. Walker and
Pierce are both versatile enough to play two positions; we can take
advantage of that and take the best 2/3/4 prospects and plug the best one
into the starting lineup within a year or two; the second one could
probably be a valuable contributor off the bench.

Personally I'm not convinced that Anderson is finished yet, but even if he
is, I'd rather move Antoine to PG and draft two of the best athletes. Let
the smaller one defend the opposing point guard. You have something like
Battie-draft-Pierce-draft-Walker on offense and
Battie-Walker-draft-Pierce-draft on defense.

I'm getting psyched about the draft. It looks like we're going to have a
shot at a significant talent infusion. Get the best talent; you can always
trade later.

Alex