Re: Cleveland considering Gasol at 8

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

At 10:54 29/05/01 -0400, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
>Anyone else picturing a slightly taller Keith Van
>Horn/Tom Chambers type with Gasol? Everyone talks about his fondness for
>driving and dunking, and that's what I'm picturing. That kind of player
>really would be a steal at 10.

Yeah, I keep reminding myself how incredibly young he is. Another year in 
Spain and his stats could be huge. The thing is that Nowitzki was even 
younger and will probably always be a far better player.

I like the Tom Chambers analogy. I hope Gasol is that good once he adds 
some muscle weight. I bet it will take him a while to get minutes in Boston 
though, because he's reportedly well behind Moiso and McCarty in terms of 
defense and really not that much taller or better at shooting. But in terms 
of court sense he could very may well lap these guys in a matter of a few 
years. I don't know. They never show his games here.

>There is so much talk about teams trading out of the top four picks-I hope
>the Celts are at least considering it. I've said several times that Eddy
>Curry or Kwame Brown would be worth any player on the roster, but other
>packages-Brand and 4 for Toine and 10-might be worth pursuing. This was a
>terrible time to go into this draft with a new "braintrust." I just don't
>see them having the guts to make a bold move like that.

         I really like your point of view, regarding at least considering 
making such a dramatic trade up e.g Boston should work out and scout the 
top five players in the draft, and not just those guys projected in our 
draft range. Previously I've also made the "top-3 is worth any player on 
our roster" argument as well, but that was back when Ming and Jason 
Williams were still theoretically in the picture. Now I'm not so sure. If 
say there is a 40% chance that Brown, Curry and Griffin will each become 
NBA Superstars and a 60% chance that they will at least make All Star once, 
then a trade of Pierce or Walker might still be warranted.  But the current 
"top three" all have question marks.

         I don't know much about Kwame Brown (he seems bright and serious 
from what I've read). Brown didn't enjoy a particularly great senior year 
statistically (neither did Curry or Tyson Chandler)  but I don't know the 
whole story (maybe his coach had the class to sit him out of blowouts). The 
thing is that there have been a lot of 6-11 Kevin Garnett wannabe's lately, 
and I think it is hardly a sure thing this one is more special than the others.

         If Eddy Curry turns out to be just around the same height as Zach 
Randolph, as some people have hinted after watching the McDonald's game, 
then who knows he may end up as a power forward or a Darrell Dawkins type 
of center. If that's the case, he might not be worth trading up for. again, 
I don't know. Lately everyone reports him as 6-11 again, so maybe it was 
just misinformation. There is also a lot of conflicting information about 
his fitness.  I saw a photo of Curry somewhere where his other family 
members in the photo resembled the Klumps in Eddie Murphy's Nutty 
Professor, but there are other photos where Curry's biceps look like the 
size of a beach ball. He looks pretty fit to me.

         It would be great if Eddie Griffin played for the Celtics, but 
only if Antoine and Pierce are also there. Griffin is really built skinny. 
You also have the two incidents (sucker punched a Seton Hall teammate and 
got kicked off his high school team for fighting another teammate). But he 
seems to me like a much safer pick than the other two (depending on Curry's 
height). I don't know, but he's the only player outside our conceivable 
draft range that IMO seems substantially better than what will be available 
to us.

         The others players #1 through #9 all carry roughly the same upside 
& downside risk as the Joe Johnson's, Rodney White's, Pau Gasol's, Zach 
Randolph's and so on who could be there at #10.

         But this guy Griffin can block shots and rebound better than any 
NCAA freshman in at least a decade, plus he scored points seemingly at will 
in the power forward rich Big East. Sure he's a "tweener" but if that's not 
a superstar prospect than I don't know what one is.

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