Ray, Ray, Ray

["Lance Jacobson" <lancejacob@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Mr. Ray:  I have 38 more posts ahead of me on the Celts boards, but it's
just too much "I told you so" before the regular season starts when you
compare these Celtics to the Bulls.

Krause has been collecting Top-5 picks for 4 years and counting.  His team
stinks, and he likes it that way until he can stack the deck with select
franchise players and come out on top again.  After bringing on coach Pink
"Son of M.L." Floyd to waste away in Marguaritaville, he ends up with
Chandler, Curry, and Jay "Don't call me Jason". Williams.

In '99, after MJ left, Woe-is-Me Krause got  #1 Elton Brand, #16 Ron Artest,
#32 Michael Ruffin and #49 Lari Ketner.  In Y2K, he got #4 Fizer, #8 Jamal
Crawford, #24 Daboric, #32 A.J. Guyton, #33 Jake Voskuhl, and #34 Khalid
El-Amin.  In 2001, he traded Brand to get Chandler at #2 and earned Curry at
#4, plus Hassell at #30 and Sean Lampley at #45.  2002 brought #2 Jay
Williams, #31 Roger Mason Jr. and #44 Lonny Baxter.

That's:

1999       1, 16, 32, 49
2000       4, 8, 24, 32
2001       4, 30, 45
2002       2, 31, 44


Ray, in addition to being a terrific KENO card, that's a starting five (I took
off Chandler since Brand was traded for him) of 1,4,4,8,2 draft picks with two
more lottery guys off the bench.  This team shouldn't stink anymore, but they
will until Jerry K. gets caught by Stern for milking the system.  At least
with Sterling, we know he'll let guys go rather than pay them, but Krause can
pay one guy per year for the next four and still make out by trading one of
his top second rounders to move up to the lottery level.