Re: Just got off the phone

["Orion" <johnlyell@hotmail.com>]

Wouldn't it have been just as cost effective to keep Johnson and not sign
dime a dozen players like Palacio and Blount to ridiculous multi-year deals?
We could have gotten Jeff McGinnis, a guy that has played very will the last
2 seasons, Vonteego Cummings, and also Shammond Williams for less.  Do they
attend these summer leagues and check these guys out?

Does he really think Delk will give us anything at the point position? he is
not a point guard. You also can not play guys like Delk & Anderson or
Strickland in the backcourt together. Bigger teams will post them up all
night. Have they not learned from our previous shortcomings in this area?
That was where Joe Johnson's size and ball handling had some great
potential.

They just want a cheap win by making the playoffs and ending what I believe
is the longest drought in the NBA, and trying to get fans believing that
they are actually improving.












----- Original Message -----
From: "Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@nyc.rr.com>
To: "celtics list" <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 11:27 AM
Subject: Just got off the phone


> with Chris Wallace.  He was waiting to hear from me!
>
> I'm going to put most of it into the column, but here's the salient
> facts:
>
> -- don't bet on signing Omar Cook right away.  The team may bring
> him in for a look, but they're mostly concerned with bringing Delk and
Rogers
> onboard.  They don't seem overly worried about losing a chance of picking
him
> up, for whatever reason.  Maybe because he's such an asshole.  I don't
know.
>
> -- Wallace had to get out of the luxury tax, and Joe was "the price of
doing
> business."  Couldn't give away the pick, couldn't use it, and nobody would
> take Randy Brown off our hands -- or Vitaly, contrary to reports.
>
> -- Joe's departure was made easier for Wallace, as he puts it, by the
team's
> belief in Kedrick Brown as a special player who has come an enormous way
> in just a few short years.  Johnson may or may not "max out" in terms of
his
> talent;
> Wallace says most guys don't, and if Joe doesn't, he won't be THAT much
> better
> than Tony Delk.
>
> -- We might re-sign Rogers.  Wallace doesn't believe Rogers will get
offered a
> lot
> of big money by teams as limited by the cap / luxury tax as we are.  He
> points
> out that only Dallas, Portland and maybe New York are unencumbered by it.
> Even
> the Lakers traded away Eddie Jones, Elden Campbell, Glen Rice, and other
good
> players because they could only afford two max-salary stars and a bunch of
> role-players.
> (They just happened to have the two best players in the league.)
>
> -- the 9 or 10 million we will clear when Kenny goes off the books still
won't
> bring
> us under the cap.  We are capped out for the foreseeable future.  "Paul
and
> Antoine
> were our free agents" was how Wallace put it.  The draft is key, however,
and
> Wallace
> stresses how in 2003 we "will be back in the multiple pick business" with
> Philly's choice.
>
> -- Wallace believes that though this year is being touted as the point
guard
> year, he
> thinks the following year may be even better, and has his eye on a couple
of
> guys he
> feels might be available where we're picking (esp. if we trade up).  He
points
> out, too,
> that none of the team who select a point guard this year will be likely to
> compete with
> the Celtics for a point the following year.
>
> --  Rookies won't get much run this year.  Making the playoffs is too
> important, and
> they don't know the game the way veterans do.  Kedrick, I gather, may be
> unleashed for his
> defensive athleticism, which Wallace said was much better than Johnson's;
but
> don't
> expect to see him brought online in the offense the way Delk and Rogers
will
> be.
>
> More to come in interview, though that's the substance.  I still think
giving
> up Johnson was a
> long-term disaster, but it sounds more like it was a financial necessity.
> Personally, if I
> owned the Celtics, I would rather have gone into a short-term cash hole
rather
> than lose
> a long-term asset.  But then I know something about basketball.  Maybe we
> blame ownership
> on this one and do our best to forget it.
>
> Josh