Sports Guy on the Celtics

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

Here's SG's latest take on the Celts.--Mark


	I'm a little grumpy about the C's. If they think they're winning a
playoff round with Erick Strickland or Eric Williams playing at crunch-time,
they're insane-those guys are 8th men at best and they can't shoot. Against
a capable defensive team like Philly or NJ, they become liabilities. The sad
thing is, even though there's no luxury tax for next season, the salary cap
will apparently be going down-because they aren't making enough cash from
the TV deal-so they can't really improve the roster because they couldn't
bring in somebody either A) making tons of money (Derek Anderson, Austin
Croshere, Eric Piatkowski or Bryon Russell) or B) a guy who will be a free
agent after the season (Raef LaFrentz, Bonzi Wells) because they couldn't
afford to sign them.  If anything, I could see them making a "packaging a #1
pick with a salary and getting nothing back" trade (like Orlando did with Bo
Outlaw) because they'll be way over the cap next season if it ends up going
down. Remember, next season, Pierce's mega-deal kicks in and Kenny's deal
jumps to something like $12 million... along with Walker, they'll have three
guys making close to $30 million combined. And they only lose McCarty,
MacLeod and Strickland from next year's cap (something like $5 million
combined), so they'll be over next season's cap by a few million (assuming
it goes down). 
	Here's what killed them: the fact that they blew the previous two
drafts, maybe the most under-reported local sports story of the year.
Kedrick Brown should pan out (he's got UPPPPPPPPPPPPPside), but in
retrospect, the Joe Johnson pick was a disaster. I'm not willing to give up
on him yet, but I also haven't seen anything from him that makes me think
that he isn't out of that Cal Cheaney/Derrick McKey "I'm never going to be
aggressive so stop wondering how good I would be if I ever played
aggressively" mold. They needed the #10 pick to help them THIS season. Plus,
he plays the same position as Kedrick (with whom they already had a deal at
#11) and he's not half the player that Richard Jefferson is (#12, now the
6th man for the Nets - the best team in the East). Even Vlad Radmanovic or
Troy Murphy would have helped this team more. 
	Or why not trade up and get Eddie Griffin, the best all-around
player in the draft, a potential All-Star and a shotblocker (who was sitting
there at #7)? They could have traded the 10th and 21st picks and moved up
for him (a better offer than what NJ gave up). And what about the fact that
they passed up Haywood, Tinsley and Parker at #21 to take Joe Forte? Or that
they took Moiso last season and passed up Quentin Richardson and Mo-Pete?
	Okay, Chris Wallace is an extremely nice guy, he works his butt off
and everyone speaks highly of him...  but the fact remains, he lucked out
with the Paul Pierce pick in '98 and he hasn't made a single good move since
other than Kedrick (which may end up saving him down the road). In
retrospect, they MANGLED last year's draft. Mangled it. That could be the
difference between them winning 50-plus games this season and them finishing
42-40 and losing in Round One, in a wide-open Eastern Conference, no less
(will there ever be another season where the window is open this wide???).
This team, as presently constituted, can't beat Philly, Milwaukee or New
Jersey more than 20% of the time. If they played ten games apiece against
those teams, they would win about six total. These are the facts.
And if something happens to Walker... I mean, do you realize that this team
has no backup power forward? Or that this could have been easily addressed
in last year's draft? ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!