Damon Jones

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ugh. Another body blow. This is just what the doctor didn't order.

To recap, so far this summer the Celtics:

... are on the verge of losing Rodney Rogers; 
... are on the verge of losing Erick Strickland;
... have admitted disappointment in Kedrick Brown;
... have made an offer to a skinny, three-point shooting center; 
... have made an offer to a skinny, three-point shooting point guard.

Does that about sum it up? Damon Jones is exactly what this team doesn't
need. He's another shooting guard (and not even a very good one) who
masquerades as a point guard. His specialty, of course, is the three-point
shot. Once again, the "braintrust" (they've earned the quotation marks again
this offseason) seems ready to turn the team's point guards into spot-up
shooters.

Rest assured, if Jones is signed, that relegates the Omar Cook/Joe Forte
winner (Cook) to third string point guard and the other one out of town. Of
course, they may just keep Forte since he's already under contract and they
can save some $$$ by cutting Cook. Either way, forget about a true point
guard in Boston next season. And the season after that? Well, I'm sure the
"braintrust" has their eyes on some hotshot high school senior who will fall
in their laps in the draft.

Talk about deflating. Tell me, without Rodney Rogers and Vitaly (out the
first half of the season), are the Celtics really ready to go with a
frontcourt rotation of Walker, Battie and Sundov? Because that's what they
have right now. The rest of the roster is Pierce, Kenny, Ewill, Kedrick,
Delk, Forte, Cook, Damon Jones (maybe) and ??? Songaila? A European? The
Celts were small and weak on the boards last season. This season, they'll be
pathetic.

And before Paul lobs a sarcastic "yeah, this approach only got them to the
Eastern Conference Finals" response at me (I know you're ready, Paul... step
away from the keyboard), the Celtics got where they were despite their
offense. They did it with defense. Feeding the "Pierce and Walker take turns
while everyone else stands around the perimeter" offense isn't going to
improve this team. Instead of moving away from that approach, they seem to
be moving further toward it-and with inferior personnel. They continue to
ignore the glaring need for rebounding on this team.

I'm really, really discouraged with the way this offseason is going. We're
downgrading at backup C/PF (Rogers to Sundov) and backup PG (Strickland to
Jones). Kedrick isn't progressing. Kenny is older and at best a longshot to
repeat the season he just had. Vitaly won't be ready until halfway through
the season. This team is setting itself up for a major regression.

Like I said... ugh.

Mark

P.S. On the criticism of the Rogers/Delk trade. I still say the criticism
shouldn't be of the trade... it should be of last year's draft. Look at the
studs and future studs who came out of that draft. The Celts had three
picks, including two in the lottery. They struck out. You can say "you gave
up Joe Johnson and Casey Jacobsen for Tony Delk..." but Joe Johnson is never
going to be anything more than average and Jacobsen or any other player
taken at that point is a question mark. The trade was a good one for the
Celts. But the draft that brought in Johnson, Kedrick and Forte-total
disaster, and it set this franchise back several years.