Time to Groan, not to Panic

[Michael Gooen <callmebogie@xxxxxxxxx>]

I live in NJ and have to put up with Johnny-come-lately (er,
Jason-come-lately?) "Nets fans" on a regular basis, so I have plenty of
reason to be upset about yesterday's developments.  

Rodney Rogers was a good soldier during his short time with the Celtics. 
While I'm not sure he was the sole -- or even the main -- reason the Cs
made it to the conference finals last year, his contributions against
Philly and Detroit were truly valuable.  I think Joe has it pegged right
-- Rodney is guaranteed double digits off the bench.  He's a chemistry guy
who won't hurt you as a starter but is willing to be a reserve at several
positions.  He gives the Nets a missing ingredient they needed.  It sucks
to lose him from a pure basketball perspective; it sucks to lose him from
a political perspective (letting tax considerations prevent the Cs from
making anything but an insulting offer, ending up with only half a season
of anything from a trade that cost 2 #1 picks) and it sucks to lose him to
the Nets.

That said, I'm not yet conceding the Eastern Conference to the Nets.  They
were uncharacteristically injury-free last year, and a substantial portion
of their core roster is injury-prone (K-Mart, Kittles, and aren't there
some questions about Jefferson's health from his Arizona days?) or old
(Mutombo, Childs -- even Rodney's no spring chicken).  On paper, the Nets
are an excellent team.  But let's see how things play out over 82 games. 
I'm not too worried about who guards Rodney on the perimeter -- that trick
works against big old broken-down Georgetown centers, but shouldn't pose
much of a problem for Boston.  The bigger problem is who guards Kidd. 
Give me Erick Strickland and a reasonably unbiased referee and I'll take
my chances.
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