Re: wow! get this. Kenny almost went

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

At 08:23 AM 3/2/01 -0500, Cynthia Ozersky wrote: 
> From Vescey's
> column:
>  
> Sources say the Celtics nearly accepted
> the Mavericks' invitation to assume Kenny
> Anderson's salary (two years to go after this at $17.5M)
> in return for season-ending contracts and Boston's three first-round
> picks. Who knows what would've happened had John (Why?)
> Brown not been consulted.

If Vecsey is to be believed, this shows that Kenny Anderson
and his big contract is worth minus 3 first-round draft picks. And the
proposals of "Anderson and picks for [All-Star]" are obviously
disconnected from any sort of reality. Depressing but not
surprising.

I would guess that this deal and the deal to dump McCarty on the Bulls
were connected, because getting rid of both is much more valuable than
just one or the other. If we had dumped both and then renounced most of
our free agents (Stith in particular), then we would likely be below the
cap enough to pursue a premier free agent, or use the cap space to
facilitate favorable trades. Orlando did a similar dumping of lottery
talent when they sent Dooling and Maggette to the Clippers, but they were
the premier free agent destination, so it was obviously much less risky.
But just dumping Kenny's salary in isolation probably doesn't help our
cap situation enough to warrant it.

As it is, if we have to hand out three first-round contracts and extend
Pierce this offseason, I don't see any cap flexibility for many years.
Hopefully one of these picks will turn into something special.

Alex