Guys I'm zeroing in on...

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

I'm going to throw a few names out there, and none of them are European. I
still expect the Celts to throw the pick at a Euro and hope he goes away,
but since I don't know anything about the European players, I'm going to
throw out a few "Made in the USA" names that wouldn't surprise me at No. 49.
Keep in mind, that Wallace expressed a preference for point guards or
centers.

1.	Marcus Taylor... The MSU point guard who scouts agree should have
stayed in school (he left after his sophomore season). Still, at the end of
last season, he was the second best player in the Big Ten (behind Indiana's
Jared Jeffries). I like his potential more than Illinois' Frank Williams,
who will be chosen in the first round. Taylor has good size and is a natural
point guard. He's the best college point guard at running the pick and roll
that I've seen in many years. He can come off the pick and hit the college
3-pointer or drive to the basket and find the open man. I really like him,
and would be thrilled if the C's grabbed him in Round 2. A potential starter
in a year or two, and how many of those fall in your lap in the second
round?

2.	J.R. Bremer... OK, I don't know anything about him other than what I
read. He's a super-athletic and strong scoring point guard. Sounds like a
Wallace/O'Brien kind of guy. The descriptions of the guy put me in mind of
Eric Strickland, and that would be a nice pickup with a second-round pick.

3.	Robert Archibald... Another Big Ten guy who I've seen quite a bit. A
big (6-11), solidly built center with soft hands and a soft touch around the
basket. Good free throw shooter. I think he could develop into a Brad Miller
type (another second-round Big Ten center). He's not ponderously slow like
the next guy on my list...

4.	Chris Christoferson... Has been compared to Todd MacCulloch, another
second-round steal who was considered too slow to play in the NBA. When will
these guys realize that nobody runs the floor in the NBA anymore, so
straight-ahead speed for big guys is overrated (otherwise, Tony Battie would
be an all-star). A guy who can hold a spot in the post, move a couple of
steps laterally and get garbage points around the basket can be a
contributor. (NOTE: I don't expect the Celtics to be interested in either
Archibald or Christoferson. They seem to have a real disdain for big guys in
this vein. I don't agree with them, not that it matters.)

5.	Sam Clancy... Not a point guard or a center, but a legit backup
power forward-something the C's don't have if they fail to resign Rogers. He
probably won't be there at 49, but he'd be a steal. He's one of the few guys
the Celts have gone on the record about. They liked him last year also,
before he pulled his name out of the draft.

6.	Ronald Murray/Lorinza Harrington/Smush Parker/Tito Maddox/John
Salmons/Juan Dixon... These are all point guards projected to go anywhere
from the late first to mid-second round. Does one of them slide? I love
Dixon as a college player, but no more Joe Fortes, please. It's not a knock
on the kid to say his game just doesn't translate to the NBA level. If any
of the other guys slide to the Celts, we should consider ourselves
fortunate. I'm including Harrington in this list because Andy Katz says
there's a lot of action on him in the late first and early second round. All
of these guys other than Dixon have good size for PGs. We'll see.

Other interesting draft notes... Stanford's Casey Jacobsen was invited to
the draft. That was a surprise, because he was considered a fringe
first-rounder. The NBA normally only invites guys it is pretty sure will be
drafted in the first round (they're trying to avoid any repeats of the
Rashard Lewis fiasco of a few years ago). Now the thinking is that some team
in the first round has given Jacobsen and the league an assurance that he'll
be taken. Could be as soon as Charlotte at 17... More and more NBA types are
saying this is one of the deepest drafts in years, further irritating me
since Wallace seems like he'd much rather be watching Baywatch tomorrow
night than actually trying to find a contributor in the second round.
Meanwhile, teams like Seattle, with nine former second-round picks on the
roster, are scouring the draft crop for a gem.

Mark