Re: On The Trading Block

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

At 05:16 PM 11/21/2001, DJB wrote:
>One guy not mentioned that is on the block: Tom Gugliotta. Phoenix
>seems to want to get rid of him beacuse of the recent acquisition of Bo
>   Outlaw and I believe that he'd be a perfect backup at the PF spot. As
>   quoted in the article in The Arizona Republic:
>
>  "If the Suns are to move Gugliotta, they would likely have to throw in
>draft  picks and take on players who may not figure in their plans but
>will be free  agents within the next year or two."
>
>The problem with Googs is his salary. Would the Cs want to take it on?
>
>-David

Backup PF is not exactly a big need area for this team, and Gugliotta has 
stunk in recent years. What happened to him? And at $10M/year, no way. It's 
hard to conceive of a deal where we could give them equally bad contracts 
in return (which is saying a lot considering we have Eric Williams, 
McCarty, Kenny Anderson, etc.) because I believe Gugliotta's contract 
expires in 2004.

And it doesn't matter if they throw in draft picks because they're probably 
all going to be in the 20s since Pheonix is a pretty good team.

The Celtics need to retain as much flexibility as they can in terms of 
salary. It's clear that room below the luxury tax is becoming an asset in 
trades as well as free agency (thru the midlevel exception), as we've seen 
with the Bo Outlaw trade, the Cliff Robinson trade, the signing of Anthony 
Mason, etc. The Celtics should be able to make something happen in 2003, 
especially if we have a talent surplus at the 2/3 spots by that time (with 
Pierce, Johnson, Kedrick Brown, maybe Joe Forte).

Alex