Vecsey Likes It; His Associate Sees Curtis Rowe

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AINGE FINALLY GETS IT RIGHT 
Peter Vecsey

December 16, 2003 -- HOOP DU JOUR 

LET me see if I get this: Danny Ainge, who was convinced he could do damage in the East with just one scorer, does a double take and gets another one. 

Hey, at least he's man enough to admit the error of his inexperience. The way I see it, Dishonorable Danny suddenly became the leading candidate to win comeback-executive-of the-year when he delivered Eric Williams, Tony Battie and Kedrick Brown (three of the players the forked tongue Celtic swore he didn't offer the Blazers for Bonzi Wells) to the Cavaliers for Ricky Davis, Chris Mihm and Michael Stewart. 

Either that, or Ainge, in great grope, just compounded his fracture. After all, Davis is a two-inch smaller version of the quadruple threat Antoine Walker, replete with many of his unsavory and superior habits. In other words, basically, a Paul Pierce clone. Will that make the pair seemingly compatible, a la Vince Carter/Jalen Rose, or will it accentuate their individualism to the detriment of the Celtics? 

At the very least, Pierce no longer must regularly bear the brunt of the offense. 

"Enough of this nonsense about the Celts needing scoring," scolds my column conscience, predicting a Sidney Wicks/Curtis Rowe type future for Davis in Boston. 

 Williams, who averages 22.7 points per 48 minutes - 43rd in NBA - produces 11.6 points on only eight shots. Davis, 20.3 ppg, requires far more shots - 14.1 - to average 15.3. 

"To me, Williams was the embodiment of everything Red Auerbach stood for," underlined my consultant, throwing the importance of Eric's positive locker room personality into the equation and how much coach Jim O'Brien depended on that voice. "He produced Paul Silas numbers in Paul Silas minutes and now gets to play for Paul Silas." 

Where was I? Oh, yeah, significantly, the 6-7 Davis earns almost one-third less ($5M to $13.5M) than Walker and has four years left on his deal, whereas Antoine is free to opt out of next season's $14.625M. 

Meanwhile, Mihm, a rising restricted free agent, offers everything, except 3-point range (a blessed reality) and a padded contract, that Ainge craved from tripod Raef LaFrentz before he underwent knee surgery.