No Subject

Quick Celtics notes:

****FEEL FREE TO SKIP IF YOURE NOT A CELTS FAN****

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!!!!!!!!

****END OF CELTS RANT****

(My comments: Hell, I've said this repeatedly.)