Re: Trade Walker?

[Kestutis.Kveraga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- You wrote:
Take this for what it is worth.  It came to me from a fourth cousin whose 
landlord's third cousin works with someone whose niece babysits for a 
neighbor of one of the new owners.  

- WALLACE is gone (and has privately been told so).

- OBIE is teetering on the edge, but likely gone (the owners are reluctant 
to make such a wave prior to the end of the season).

- WALKER is going to be shopped.

- COWENS may be brought in as Head Scout, but not as Head Coach or GM.
--- end of quote ---

While I SO want to believe this, the source - the way you describe it - does
not exactly inspire confidence. The only thing that gives me hope is that one
or more of the owners are at nearly every Celtics game and I hope they see what
I'm seeing. Then again, Walrus apparently can talk with the best of them, and
has seduced at least Thanksdad and many sportswriters and fans who've had the
opportunity to talk to him  - including some on this list. If nothing else,
he's a good BSer. So, who knows, maybe the new owners are Walrus-whipped  (Ww)
too. And without Walrus being gone, we can't do anything, because that idiot
will screw up everything he touches. Getting rid of him is priority #1, then
Obie, then Walker. 

--- You wrote:
I guess I see Obie and Walker as sort of being attached at the hip.  
As Sean G. suggested, it is certainly possible that under a ''real coach 
and a real system'' we might see a new Walker.  But how probable is that? 
--- end of quote ---

Even the best coaches, such as Jackson and Brown, can't  really control their
superstars  - Kobe and Iverson, respectively. They pretty much do what they
like. So why would even a "real coach" - provided we could get someone like
Brown or Jackson - be able to control Toine? The way I see it, with the
superstars in the NBA, either they play the game the right way and are
coachable (e.g. Duncan or even Shaq), or they don't/aren't. You can't really
control them, because they control whether you're going to have a job as a
coach with their play on the court (and sometimes off the court as well). 

Toine is, by all accounts, in the Kobe/Iverson group in terms of coachability
(but not talent). Six years, three different coaches with three different
approaches (hands off, dictatorial, and friendly/supportive for ML, Pitino and
Obie, respectively) haven't changed him much. Sure, he's not as much of a punk
as he used to be, but along with that softening around the edges his game has
become softer and softer and he still has appalling shot selection. If you
don't figure it out in 6 years, by the time you're 26, when do you figure it
out? If you listen to broadcasters other than Tommy and Mike, and read what
other coaches and columnists have to say, it's clear that he's viewed as little
more than a talented clown around the league. Sure, he has enough talent to get
him on the All-Star team in the East, but so what? 

The bottom line is, he won't play the PF position the way we need him to, but
he won't give it up, either. As I've written before, he wants to cherry-pick
the tastiest parts of PG, SG, and PF positions, mostly the former two. As
others have pointed out, this skews the team badly towards softness at the
power positions and makes us last or near-last in rebounding/shot blocking. If
he were willing to play just the PG (and do ALL that it entails AND improve his
shot selection), I could see holding on to him, since we don't have a real PG
either, and he CAN pass and dribble. But we need a real PF, too - or a real C,
if Tony shifted to PF. And how can you get a decent big man without trading
Antoine or Pierce? We've had our multiple chances in the lottery in the last 6
years and Pitino/Walrus blew nearly all of them. Now we're out of the lottery
and in the lux tax territory with nothing to show for it, with the fine job the
BDT has done. 

--- You wrote:
It is also possible that without Walker, Obie would switch to an entirely 
different offense.  But that too, does not seem probable as I still 
have visions of Wallace and Obie smugly anticipating how their 7' 2'' 
find, Sundov, was going to launch a zillion 3's over the heads of all 
those helpless little perimeter defenders. 
--- end of quote ---

And he would be, if not for that unfortunate injury that landed him on the IL.
In shootarounds with ballboys defending him, I meant. 
Kestas