SI: Wallace Off The Glass

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Have to agree with the last paragraph....)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/fantasy/basketball/news/2003/04/02/off_glass/

Is Chris Wallace (the Celtics GM) smoking something that the rest of
Boston isn't smoking? As a Bostonian, I can't see the vision he keeps
referring to with what we have here now (Antoine Walker, Grant Long,
Mark Blount, Mark Long, Bimbo "is old" Coles and the rest of these
"fruit booties"). We Bostonians need an impartial (you) person to make
some sense of this stuff. I'm so TIRED OF LOSING.
-- Greg Powell, Boston

If only Tim Duncans grew on trees. With the limited maneuverability the
team has regarding their salary-cap situation, the Celtics are pretty
well stuck with what they've got now. And while Paul Pierce and Antoine
Walker are good enough to get the C's into the postseason, they aren't
enough to get the club past seven other very good teams into the Finals,
which is how winning is measured by most Celtics fans (Oh, to have that
luxury).

Wallace has done about as much as he can while working through the bad
contracts Rick Pitino left behind and trying to find what useful spare
parts he can fit into the financial constraints of the team's new
ownership. Of course, that doesn't excuse his three first-round draft
duds two years ago, which might have represented this current group of
Celtics' best chance to improve dramatically.

With all of that said, there doesn't seem to be much leeway for Boston
to change its fortunes outside of (here it is) a trade of one of the two
big guns. If the C's could parlay an Antoine Walker into a big man or a
power forward-point guard combination, we'd like their playoff lifeline
a lot more than we do now. The risk, of course, is if you end up with
another Vin Baker, well, then you lose your job.