RE: Sports Guy on the Celtics

["Ravi Singh" <kelticsfan@attbi.com>]

Rather than get into this entire Sports Guy thing again, let me just say
that Boston didn't pass up Haywood at 21.  He was selected at 20 by
Cleveland.  And how easily could the power forward situation have been
addressed?  Other than trading up for Griffin, or Gasol which I suspect
is less easy than Sports Guy seems to think, who would have provided
what Boston wants out of the position given their reluctance to play
Walker at small forward?  Eddie Griffin playing 10 minutes per game
assuming Walker was held to 38 minutes per contest?  

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-celtics@igtc.com [mailto:owner-celtics@igtc.com] On Behalf
Of Berry, Mark S
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 2:02 PM
To: 'celtics@igtc.com'; 'celticsstuffgroup@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Sports Guy on the Celtics


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!!!!!!!!