Re: Baker

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

Celtic4Hire@AOL.com wrote:

> I don't understand two threads of logic shown on this thread: 1) draft and
> develop. Hello, we just drafted a guy to develop and he won't be able to help
> significantly for 2-3 years. Now I am not advocating trading away our draft
> picks. However, to think we are going to get an impact player from the draft
> this day and age and from our likely drafting position is slim and none. 2)
> Inside scorers don't grow and trees. There isn't many in the NBA. Walker
> isn't a true inside scorer. I don't know where people think the improvement
> will come but I have identified low post veteran scoring of the bench as a
> way that the team can improve. I hear a lot of hindsight complaining of why
> we didn't get so and so. Oakley was thought of being toast and he stablized
> the Raptors when they traded for him. You just don't get something for
> nothing. You have to take risks, especially for the rare inside scorers and
> centers.
>
> We can talk all we want about getting other players at the 2 thru 4 spots but
> would they be playing instead of Walker, Pierce and Stith? I don't think so.
> Do you want to develop another Billups for a few years? Do you think Pierce
> will resign in a couple years if we still haven't put this together?

The draft is clearly hit or miss (it's not like Pierce or Walker took years to
make an impact) but it offers cheaper, possibly more talented alternatives at
power forward. I guess it is perfectly fair to say that most will develop at the
rate of a Keon Clark or Jermaine O'Neil, but others could certainly have a bigger
immediate impact than, say, an Elton Brand.

Eddie Griffin-Seton Hall freshman  (NCAA #3 rebounder at 11.2 board , #1
shotblocker at 4.5 blocks )
Eddy Curry-High School
Brendan Haywood-NC Tarheal  (3.6 blocks etc.)
Yao Ming-PRC
Michael Bradley-Villanova  (.695FG%, 21.8 ppg, 10.0 boards)
Troy Murphy (22.6 ppg, Big East MVP)
Loren Woods- could slip down a bit, who knows.
Tyson Chandler, DiSagana Diop Ousmane Cisse in High School
ACC's Alvin Jones (10 boards, 3.3 blocks), Lonny Baxter, Carlos Boozer...
The Collins twins at Stanford
Dan Gadzuric at UCLA
Udonis Haslem at Florida (16.7 ppg, 7.2 boards, 601FG%)
Zach Randolph

If you ask me, the Bulls would be wise to trade even a proven inside scorer like
Brand for any top-three pick in this draft, except that they already have a top
pick pretty much assured anyway because of their dismal record.

Chicago illustrates that a hardworking and proficient inside scoring machine is
not some holy grail. If we traded Toine or Pierce for someone as good as Brand
(as opposed to building through the draft and around the edges) we could as
easily regress to the level the Bulls are right now with Brand, Mercer, Fizer,
Crawford and friends. Same case can be made with Marbury (21 wins with Van Horn,
Kenyon Martin and friends) for one of our two captains. An undeniably great point
guard or inside scorer alone possibly might not change anything, if it means
trading Walker or Pierce in return.

I think it should be argued that there are very few NBA players this year who
have done "more with less" (in the way of supporting talent) to help their team
win than Boston's Walker and Pierce. Kevin Garnett blows them both away in that
regard, but it is pretty hard to come up easily with many more names in this
category (guys who every night are carrying a weak talent base farther than would
seem realistic). Dallas has a similar situation (Finley and Nowitzki), but they
also have an unlimited spending policy to build the supporting cast around those
two super talents. In Boston, we are forced to take seriously rumors about
acquiring Christian Laetner for three first rounders, just to save money on
Kenny's two year remaining contract.

Joe

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