Vecsey Details Ainge's Offer for Wells, Patterson, and McInnis

[wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

D.C. sources close to Bill Strickland, agent for Bonzi and Rasheed, among others (Allan Houston, for example; all his clients aren't potholes) says the Blazers gave him permission a while back to seek out desirable trades. 
He uncovered the following opportunity: Eric Williams, Tony Battie, Kedrick Brown, Walter McCarty and Mike James in exchange for Bonzi, Ruben Patterson and Jeff McInnis, yet another Strickland client. 
As badly as the Blazers are itching to dump Patterson, the five-for-three offer couldn't satisfy all the parameters fulfilled by the one-for-one swap with Memphis. Portland got Wesley Person, a quality guy (a lifetime 42 percent, 3-point shooter) on the last year of his contract; the talent disparity was evened up by the draft pick. 
In all fairness to Ainge, he has only just begun to get a feel for moving the Celtic chess pieces. Fact is, already he has managed to distinguish himself from his counterparts by falling below the bar in the east; that'll teach him (and Boston's new owners) to try to fix something that was battered and bent, but not necessarily broken. 
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