RE: the kind of players I'm thinking of

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

I'm not so sure.  For teams with their eye on that special foreign player
or local hero, draft picks must be pretty attractive.  And what about
a team like the Wolves, that have no picks at all?  Still, I would keep
them too, at least until we see who we can get with them.  I just hope
they don't hire a Wayne Embry or someone who comes in and insists
on putting his stamp on the franchise, overrulling Papile and Wallace,
etc.  I hope whoever they hire is secure enough to let our scouts do
what they do best.

Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
> Sent:	Friday, March 16, 2001 9:56 AM
> To:	W
> Cc:	I am. . . Anonymous; 'celtics@igtc.com'
> Subject:	Re: the kind of players I'm thinking of
> 
> W wrote:
> 
> > >   I remember way back when the Knicks had THREE mid-level
> > > draft picks in one year.  They held onto them instead
> > > of trading, and if I remember correctly drafted
> > > McCarty and 2 other duds.
> >
> > Walter McCarty
> > Dontae' Jones
> > John Wallace
> >
> > W
> 
> Or consider the Orlando scenario of 1998.
> 
> 12. Michael Doleac
> 13. Keon Clark
> 15. Matt Harpring
> 
> The five players that went immediately ahead of Doleac were Jason
> Williams, Larry Hughes, "Sprockets" Nowitzki, Paul Pierce and Bonzi
> Wells. That's a playoff team right there practically.
> 
> At the time, I recall lamenting that the 1998 draft was only 8 or 9
> players deep, but luckily for Boston it turned out to be ten deep. The
> national Orlando sports pages actually had pencilled in Jason Williams
> to be the Magic's 12th or 13th pick, but Sacramento surprised everyone
> by "pulling another Bobby Hurley" and taking him at #7. Robert Traylor
> was the only thing resembling a bust in a solid top ten.
> 
> Boston right now has the rights to the 11th (Denver), 14th and 17th pick
> (Suns) I believe.
> 
> To look on the bright side for a minute, back in the1996 draft the 17th
> pick left you with the choice of Jermaine O'Neil, Jerome Williams,
> Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Derek Fisher or Walter McCarty (Doh!). The 14th pick
> was a good one (Sacramento's Predrag Stojakovic). At 11, one could
> choose between Kobe Bryant and Vitaly Potapenko (Doh!)
> 
> At the other end of the spectrum, last year's historically lame draft
> still offered a decent 14th pick in Mateen Cleaves and 17th pick in
> Desmond Mason (with Jake Tsakalidis lasting until #25). Of course the
> 11th pick in that draft (a French-boy from UCLA) apparently has the
> fewest minutes played on his mediocre team, despite enjoying an
> injury-free season.
> 
> In Pitino's first year, the other widely acknowledged draft wasteland of
> recent times, the 11th throught 14th picks featured two defensive
> standout guards in Derek Anderson and Tariq Wahad (Olivier St Jean)
> along with two big forwards in Austin Croshere and Mo Taylor.
> 
> If you look at the overall picture of 11th-17th picks in this decade, it
> is clear that Chris Wallace has his work cut out for him and needs to be
> putting in long days scouting at the prep, college and international
> level. Not to be too dramatic, but in a capped out situation Wallace
> kind of holds the key to Boston's future.
> 
> It probably depends where they eventually fall, but these three picks
> are unfortunately more valuable to actually use than to try to trade for
> an impact pick or player. I kind of doubt a bunch of draft picks in the
> teens will carry the trade value of a single top-ten pick, especially
> with the mediocre Orlando and Knicks drafts as a precedent somewhat
> fresh in most GM's minds. A later first round pick in the NBA holds
> approximately the same value as maybe a 5th round pick in the NFL draft.
> 
> 
> 
> ****
> 
> 
> 
> 
>