Mildly interesting blurb from David Aldridge

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

He was at the Shaw's summer league games and, as Josh pointed out in his
recent column, is a real insider. He wrote this about the Celtics:

The Celtics liked point guard draft pick J.R. Bremer enough to sign him and
effectively end the Omar Cook
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3541>  experiment.
Bremer can shoot it deep, a requisite for Jim O'Brien points, and he has
good defensive instincts. 
"Plus, he's ticked off he didn't get drafted," OB says. "That's always a
great motivation."
But Boston's biggest project this summer is second-year forward Kedrick
Brown <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3521> . There
will be minutes for him backing up Antoine Walker
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3112>  at the three
if the Celtics can land a power forward and get 'Toine out of the paint, or
Paul Pierce <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3253>  if
they can't. The C's are hoping that Brown will be more aggressive with a
better handle this season and try to use his explosiveness to get to the
rim. Last season, he settled for jumpers because of his weak dribble. They
put together a tape for Brown that features Seattle's Desmond Mason
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3416> , the Nets'
Richard Jefferson
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3523> , Cleveland's
Ricky Davis <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3264>
and Indiana's first-round pick, Fred Jones
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3612>  -- all
slashers who use the drive to set up their perimeter game.
The interesting things here: "There will be minutes for him backing up
Antoine Walker at the three if the Celtics can land a power forward and get
'Toine out of the paint..." Is this the plan? Are we looking at a
Battie-Baker-Walker frontcourt? Are the C's finally trying to out-size
people? It's interesting. The kneejerk thought is that would improve the
team's rebounding, and if Baker averages 8-9 boards a game, it would. But if
he just averages 6 rpg, alongside Battie's 6 rpg, it probably doesn't
improve anything. It would move Antoine even further out of rebounding
position and Pierce out of the mix almost entirely. I don't know what to
think of this. I've always wanted to see Antoine at small forward, so that
would be great. But Baker is the wrong guy to make it happen.

The other note is the Kedrick Brown stuff. Remember when he was compared to
Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady? Now they're showing him tapes
of Fred Jones. Kedrick is going to have a long NBA career as an athlete, but
he's the third bad pick of the three 2001 first-rounders.

Mark