Re: BSG Says Walker Out Of Control

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

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> Come on, Joe, if only it were that simple. Finley and Nash are only there
> because the Mavs traded Kidd for them. And if these guys had matured
> together in Dallas like you assume, they never would have been in position
> to draft Nowitzki. Maybe the Celts can make a Jason Kidd-type deal and land
> two eventual starters/borderline all-stars like the Mavs did with Finley and
> Nash.

    Doh! I didn't bother to check (I thought they had drafted Finley). You got
me there.

    This is one of those times when it just seems crystal clear to me that,
after all this suffering, we should build around the edges and reap the benefits
of the two captains, now that they are emerging into their mid-twenties. These
days it is hard to blame our record on anything other than players 3-12, so it
seems to me to be the wrong diagnosis moving one or the other of the only two
good players we have. It is like amputating someone's arm to treat jock itch.

    It would be another thing if we were the Timberwolves, but in fact we've got
five first-rounders available in the next three years to build around Walker and
Pierce as they enter their mature mid-twenties. Some of these first-rounders
could easily fall in the same draft range where players the caliber of Walker,
Pierce, Kobe Bryant, Nowitzki etc were originally available. It seems to me that
this is what we should all be talking about....can Wallace/Obie bring to Boston
the next Kobe and not the next Moiso.

    College basketball is for the first time in ages deep with quality teams and
quality players, many of them still Freshmen and Sophomores. There is apparently
a high school guard named Kevin Tolbert who could really turn into something.
Part of what makes it fun again to be Celtics fan is knowing that we will, in
all likelihood, be able to add to our core of developing role players at or
under the age of 25 (Battie, Moiso, Potapenko, Blount) with even better athletes
and prospects over the next few years, and do so painlessly without giving up
anything in return should we so choose. We've been patient this long. Now is not
the time to farm our best players off like the Clippers do.

****