RE: BSG Says Walker Out Of Control

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

One more time... I'm not saying trade Toine because he's no good, has a bad
attitude, don't like the wiggle or any other such nonsense. I know he's a
talent. My contention is that a team built around an undersized,
perimeter-oriented, soft power forward is never going to win consistently.
Stick him at small forward, Pierce at shooting guard and fill in around the
edges and I'm happy. But, again, it has been five years now and we still
haven't seen Toine at small forward.

It comes down to how I feel the team should be structured. I'm tired of
getting beaten up by bigger, stronger teams. It's time for the Celtics to
realize that this game is won by big men. Toine could be a dominant physical
small forward, with perimeter skills needed for the position... but if he
isn't used that way, he's never going to be more than an undersized matchup
problem at the PF spot.

I'm as excited about those first-rounders as anyone, but the truth is none
of those picks figure to be higher than No. 10, and that's still a huge
crapshoot. This will be a great draft, but look back through the history of
the draft at the players drafted at 10 or lower. It's not an impressive
bunch. Maybe we'll get lucky with another Pierce, but the odds are long.
Whoever we draft, assuming we don't luck into the top three, will be role
players at best early in their careers. Of those five first-rounders in the
next three years, can you agree that we'll be lucky if two of them turn into
legitimate contributors? And that's over the next three years. Three years.
I'm not looking for a quick fix by any means, but are we going to reserve
judgement on Toine until his eighth season? Is that when we can safely say
"he is what he is?"

Anyway, I'm not eagerly plotting Toine's departure. I just have a different
vision of this team than the current regime (and most of our posters,
apparently). 

Mark 

-----Original Message-----
From: Hironaka [mailto:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 11:52 AM
To: Berry, Mark S
Cc: 'celtics@igtc.com'
Subject: Re: BSG Says Walker Out Of Control


"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.

****