RE: Callahan on Baker

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe,

If you're going to give Wallace credit for liking Shammond Williams way
back, and Alvin Williams and Battie for Travis Knight, then you have to give
him the blame for the Vitaly-Andre Miller/Shawn Marion deal and all the
other bad trades during the Pitino years. You can't just give him credit for
the things he was right about and lump all the bad decisions in Pitino's
lap. And if you look at all of it on the whole, I'd say it's pretty
disastrous. There have been some nice moves around the edges, but the
big-ticket stuff has been truly awful.

As nice a job as Shammond Williams is doing, let's not lose sight of the
fact that he's here because of the $50 million train wreck that was dumped
in Obie's lap. If you could wipe Baker off the books and get rid of him
right now, but you also had to get rid of Shammond, wouldn't you do it? Of
course you would, and so would any GM with an ounce of sense.

I give Wallace great credit for the Delk/Rogers deal. That was his baby and
an absolute no-brainer. But even that traces back to his incompetence in the
2001 draft.

I agree that a Bird/Walsh team is a dream scenario for the Celts. But it's
probably just a pipe dream. I'm afraid we're stuck with Wallace. The team is
winning, and it's hard to justify making such a drastic change when the team
is doing well. Too bad it's in spite of Wallace, and not because of him.

Mark

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	hironaka@nomade.fr [mailto:hironaka@nomade.fr] 
Sent:	Friday, December 06, 2002 4:39 PM
To:	berrym@BATTELLE.ORG
Cc:	celtics@igtc.com
Subject:	Re: Callahan on Baker





> ---------- Initial message -----------
> 
> From    : owner-celtics@igtc.com
> To      : "'celtics@igtc.com'" <celtics@igtc.com>
> Cc      : 
> Date    : Fri, 06 Dec 2002 08:11:12 -0500
> Subject : Re: Callahan on Baker
> 
> Well Gaston didn't negotiate this trade. Wallace did. 
He's responsible.
> Everyone in the NBA knew this was a disaster for the 
Celts. The fans knew.
> Wallace pulled the trigger and he has to live with the 
consequences-and that
> should mean his job. This trade on the heels of the 
2001 draft should be
> enough to get any GM canned.
> 


Mark, I can't argue with that analysis. I do think CW is 
the guy most on the hot seat in the Celtics organization. 
He's not very persuasive when talking IMO. I would guess 
he will have a hard time with the new owners. 

Having said that, I think few GMs would have uncovered 
Shammond Williams in that scenario, or traded Red's kid 
and Shaw stud like Joe Forte to make it happen. It wasn't 
a "lucky" move, in the sense that we knew CW liked 
Shammond from way back. And also Alvin Williams (the 
Fortson trade that got nixed). And Rodney Rogers/Tony 
Delk. And Battie for Travis Knight. 

Chris Wallace isn't an incompetent. If I had the chance 
to make trades in his place, I'd pass. He's a nonstop 
basketball junkie, who's uncovered some starting NBA 
talent out of the remainder bin (Bruce Bowen, Adrian 
Griffin, Mark Blount). Those aren't the kind of trades 
your everday rotisserie geek would come up with. 

Don't laugh about Blount (well a little laughter is 
unavoidable)...Denver has by far been the hardest working 
and most overachieving team in the NBA. Wallace stood by 
him even after he was gone. Boston was a good defensive 
team with him in the starting lineup.

It would be great if the Bird bid fails in Charlotte (300 
million for an expansion team makes the Celtics sound 
dirt cheap) and he can join the Boston investors.

Ideally, Larry would bring Donnie Walsh with him to 
Boston. Indiana's rebuilding job has been seamless and 
trade by trade brilliant. Ron Artest should end up NBA 
Defensive Player of the Year, and he's the best clutch 
scorer they have. But who would have ever traded Jalen 
Rose for him? 

A few years ago, that team was locked into the contracts 
of Rik Smits, Reggie Miller, Chris Mullin, Croshere and 
the Davis boys. Miller will get to retire a Pacer, yet 
they've completely rebuilt the team. I wish Boston had 
had a Donnie Walsh, circa 1990.

JH

p.s. I was hoping Vin Baker could be to the Celtics what 
Derrick Coleman has been to the Sixers. So far, I 
couldn't be more wrong. But as bad as it is right now, at 
least it isn't "Dikembe Mutombo bad". Look at that guys' 
age and remaining contract. It makes you want to cry 
(sort of).




 




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