Re: Celtics' Stuff Stats for Bryon Russell

["James A. Hill" <jahill@leasingservice.com>]

While I certainly don't disagree with most of what you said, the 22nd pick
does have some value IMO.

I would rather take a chance on a Loren Woods type slider or other big man
or a potential backup passing point guard like El Amin at the low end of the
rookie scale then just dump salary.

That said, if Russell could open up a Brad Miller trade or another big man I
would be all for it.  This team desperately needs to get taller and while
Walter doesn't add that much, at least he is tall and won't take time away
from our rookies.

<Jim

"Welcome back Joe H." stated:

Hi Mark:

On the one hand, if Russell were the start of a three-way
trade scenario it wouldn't surprise me...it's just that
Chris Wallace may not have the capacity to hold two cell-
phones and chew gum at the same time.

Maybe like you, I'm not convinced Bryon Russell is that
valuable outside the specific context of the settled
lineup and HOF point guard that Utah has. But here I'm
using Eisley and Shandon Anderson as a basis for
comparison. These guys are lame. I'd prefer Kevin Gamble
or Blue Edwards over Eisley or Anderson. Or at least I
wouldn't notice the difference.

On the other hand, we are presently talking about
Boston's 22nd pick in the draft at this stage. And I
doubt I've ever been less enthusiastic in recent years
about an NBA draft (after picks 1-3 at least), or college
and highschool basketball in general than in 2002.

Knowing Walter and Randy Brown are hard to give away and
will likely never play again for Boston except to dangle
as trade bait, there's not a whole lot of downside to
this trade. No downside or upside, basically. Its Russ
for a 20-25th pick most likely. This isn't a guy that's
going to re-up for much more than the veteran minimum,
given that every team faces the lux cap and the 2003
Kidd/Duncan sweepstakes.

To me, this trade is more or less like having a do-over
with Bryant Stith or Adrian G., while at the same time
relieving our cap of Brown and McCarty.

And personally, I'm all for the rookies Kedrick and JJ
waiting their turn and learning a few tips from proven
NBA vets who play the same position. As strange as it
sounds, one reason Boston has twice as many wins as
Golden State is because we play wingmen like Eric and
Erick while they play rookies like Jason Richardson. Its
essentially the same reason a lot of on-paper,
overachieving 40+ win teams used to beat the holy crap of
Boston's Toine-Pierce-Mercer lineup without breaking a
sweat.

Assuming NBA players peak more or less at 27 or so, there
ought to be a significant advantage in knowledge and
physical maturity that separates veterans from 20-year-
olds. Every extra full season of experience you have over
someone in that sport likely provides an edge
(particularly on the defensive end where all is won and
lost). A guy like Strickland has played in over 250 more
NBA games than Joe Johnson. That's basically the
equivalent of nine full college seasons. If he hasn't
gained any advantage from that experience, he's a retahd.

Even looking at NCAA ball these days, the successful
teams so far mostly are built around prosaic
upperclassmen who are marginal first rounders at best.



> ---------- Initial message -----------
>
> From    : "Berry, Mark  S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>
> To      : "Celtic igtc list (E-mail)"
<celtics@igtc.com>, "Celtic yahoo list (E-mail)"
<celticsstuffgroup@yahoogroups.com>
> Cc      :
> Date    : Thu, 14 Feb 2002 08:43:54 -0500
> Subject : [Celtics' Stuff Stats for Bryon Russell
>
> Here are some stats for potential trade target Bryon
Russell:
>
> 9 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.2 apg, .362 FG percentage, .262 3-
point percentage.
>
> I was just thinking that a swingman who shoots 36
percent from the floor and
> 26 percent from 3-point range was exactly what the
Celtics needed. This is
> like trading a first-round pick for Eric Williams....
>
> Of course, having him around would almost make
Antoine's shooting look good.
>
> I'm guessing Bryon would have been No. 1 on Leo
Papile's draft board...
>
> Do you think the Jazz offered B. Russell and Wallace
got confused?
>
> Mark