RE: musings

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

I'm with you here Josh. Give me Randolph and Gasol and I'll consider it
Christmas in July (or late June, anyway). Of course, that means they finally
have to make the move and put Toine at small forward. But if Dirk Nowitzki
can handle it, can't Toine?? 

The looks on the faces of Gary St. Jean and Jerry Krause were priceless
yesterday. Almost worth the annual disappointment of the Celtics' fortunes.
Of course, couldn't we all have predicted the Wizards' luck?

The lottery outcome did provide some intrigue at the top of the draft. If
there are three teams that would seem prime "trade the pick" possibilities,
they would be Washington, the Clips and Atlanta. My guess is it doesn't
happen, but all three teams have expressed an interest in trading the pick
for a veteran, because all three feel they can make a huge leap with the
right piece (the Wizards, of course, have the Jordan factor to consider).
I'm sure Chris Wallace will have more than a few conversations with all
three. Again, for the record, any of these picks, ultimately, is worth Toine
and probably worth Pierce. I have a feeling any team that passes on Eddy
Curry is going to regret it for the next 15 years.

The continued ridicule of this draft is going to come back to haunt some
ignorant sports writers/broadcasters. Three years from now, when Curry,
Kwame Brown and Eddie Griffin are All-Star locks, all the bashing this draft
has taken is going to seem so silly. You know who you are Peter May.

If there are no trades, the picks seem to be shaping up something like this
(although things certainly will change):

1.	Washington-Kwame Brown
2.	Clippers-Eddy Curry
3.	Atlanta-Eddie Griffin
4.	Chicago-DaSagna Diop
5.	Golden State-Shane Battier
6.	Vancouver-Jason Richardson
7.	New Jersey-Tyson Chandler
8.	Cleveland-Rodney White
9.	Detroit-Joe Johnson
10.	Boston-Zack Randolph
11.	Boston-Pau Gasol

My worst fear is the lottery plays out just like this and the Celtic
"braintrust" sits there at 10 and says "Antoine is our power forward" and
instead of taking the two best players on the board, settles for Loren Woods
and Jamaal Tinsley or some such thing. I can hear the press conference
now... "We've addressed our two most glaring needs with two college seniors
who can step in and help right away..." Then the season will start, Woods
will play like Tony Battie and Tinsley will play like Chauncey Billups and
we'll still be outrebounded by every team in the league. Sigh......

Mark


********************
Josh O. wrote: 
The guy to "to do the job" of rebounding/low post scoring
is Zack Randolph.  And for whatever reason, it looks like
Rodney White and Joe Johnson are zooming up.  (The Pistons also said,
according to Katz, that they wouldn't let White get past them.)  Meanwhile,
Joe Johnson could conceivably end up in the top five!  You heard it here
first.  Zack Randolph and Pau Gasol will suit me fine.