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RE: [Celtics' Stuff
Joe, four of the rookies you mentioned are high school projects. Everyone
knew they would take time. Rodney White was a college freshman. Joe Johnson
came out as a sophomore-a seasoned veteran compared to most draftees, and
widely proclaimed, even by the "braintrust" to be among the most NBA-ready
rookies. In fact, the frightening thing about Johnson is that he was
NBA-ready. He had the body, the game, the skills, but has shrunk like a
snail in salt. Others are progressing, he's regressing. I've given them a
pass on Kedrick Brown. Forte-I said that was a mistake before the draft,
after the draft and ever since.
I don't buy the "other teams passed, too" argument. If everyone jumped off a
bridge...
What about Richard Jefferson? There's a guy who was sitting there for the
taking at 10 or 11, who played the same position as JJ, and it's reasonable
to believe the Celts should have been comparing the two players. Who was the
better pick? You may say the shrinking violet, but it would only be because
you see him through green-tinted glasses. By every other measure, Jefferson
would have been the better pick. If the Celts had taken Jefferson, who seems
to get better every game, instead of Johnson, we'd be toasting Wallace's
evaluation skills and deriding Johnson for his wallflower persona. Murphy,
Radmanovic, Haywood, Tinsley, Parker... there were so many mistakes made in
this draft, it's laughable. We were told these guys were "clearly" the best
players available, which justified the fact that they all play the same
position. The truth is, not only didn't they fit the roster, but they
weren't the best players available. How else do you judge a GM? On his
trades? Ours keeps trying to sell draft picks for more money. Even
Kedrick... if any other team had taken this mystery man, we'd be ridiculing
that pick. Like I said, I'm giving them a pass on that one (for now), but
what evidence do we have that he's anything more than Corey Maggette,
Desmond Mason or Ricky Davis?
Look at New Jersey (who would have thought we'd be holding them up as models
for others)... they traded Eddie Griffin for Houston's three picks (13, 15
and 18). They got ripped for that move (I still think it was a mistake), but
they turned those picks into Jefferson, a young center who is in the
rotation (Collins) and a combo guard making more of an impact than Forte
(Armstrong). They were criticized for all of those picks (except maybe the
Jefferson selection) even after the trade, but they seem to have done a hell
of a lot better than the Celts. They trusted their own evaluations instead
of falling into line with the "consensus."
Wallace has been here since Pitino got here and what has he done? Pierce
fell in his lap. He reportedly was one of the proponents of the Vitaly
trade. They haven't made a good draft pick other than Pierce, who required
no thinking whatsoever. He signed Eric Strickland. Good move. He also lost
sleep over losing the "Shaq of the Shaw's." Remember Papile's "that speaks
volumes" quote about the Blount signing before the last draft? The
"braintrust" obviously believed Blount was adequate at center-no need to go
big in the draft with the Shaq of the Shaw's around...
What exactly can we judge Wallace on?
-----Original Message-----
From: hironaka@nomade.fr [mailto:hironaka@nomade.fr]
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 2:50 PM
To: Celticsstuffgroup@yahoogroups.com
Cc: celtics@igtc.com
Subject: RE: [Celtics' Stuff
You wrote:
I'm not exaggerating when I say you could have taken the
first-round picks and thrown darts and the majority of
the time, you would have come away with more help than the
Celts got in this draft. They blew it, and there's no way
out of it at this point. The guys they did take have no
value-NONE-so they can't sort it out with trade.
--------
Why not blame every GM equally for passing up Tinsley and
Parker until the 27th pick?
Your jumping to conclusions big time here.
You ought to hold the teams that picked ahead of us by
the same standards.
How are Kwame Brown, Rodney White, Tyson Chandler, Eddie
Curry, Sagana Diop doing as rookies? Those guys ride the
bench on horrible teams, not playoff teams.
If you aren't writing off any of those top-ten picks (you
probably shouldn't), don't write off our kids either.
Much of the cream will eventually rise to the top.
This "look what happened in the draft" argument is really
jumping the gun at this stage in the game. Even knowing
what we know after half a season, I'm not sure I would
have anything except the 21st pick any differently.
And even Forte is going to show something I'd bet (maybe
not in Boston). Just give it time.
The Kedrick injury is bit of a shame. It could have been
Kedrick, not Jason Richardson, coming off All Star
weekend as the dunk champ and with a starting job. That
was an untimely setback for him.
At least he and JJ are coming along compared to over half
the players drafted ahead of them. Give them all a little
of your patience instead of singling just our guys out as
dart board picks.
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