Celts sign Grant Long

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

How long before Long is taking away Baker's minutes? Whatever. At least he's
not Mikki Moore.

A few other things from recent posts...

Joe mentioned Kedrick and the fact that he couldn't have averaged 15 ppg at
any level without being more aggressive and assertive... Joe, I really think
you're overestimating the competition Kedrick played against in JC. Imagine
him banging and jumping against guys smaller and not nearly as strong or
athletic. I'm guessing he racked up a lot of points on offensive rebounds
and post-ups against overmatched kids. I hate to keep using Gerald Wallace
as an example, but there's a guy who was considered by many experts to be
the best player in his high school class. He absolutely dominated. He went
to Alabama and struggled throughout his freshman season before turning pro
and being a late first-round pick. Athletic ability will carry you to big
numbers against lesser competition, and Kedrick, I'm betting, was facing far
inferior competition at Okaloosa-Walton CC. Judging by the schedule LeBron
James' team is playing this season, or a team like Oak Hills plays, I'm
betting those high school teams face better competition than Kedrick faced
in some of his games. Anyway, my point is you keep going back to Kedrick's
JC stats and saying he can't possibly have put up those stats without having
some skills and basketball savvy. I'd say he could and did. The Celtics saw
a guy who could jump and could shoot stand-still jumpers in a workout or
against slow, undersized, overmatched opponents and they assumed that was
all he needed. I'm really wondering how many times they saw him play. He
can't shoot under even modest pressure, he can't handle the ball at all, he
can't pass, he doesn't understand how to get his own shot, he doesn't know
how to move without the ball. He is a decent defender and rebounder strictly
on athletic ability, but that's it.

And you mentioned Kenny's value... Joe, I'd wager quite a bit that if
Seattle would do that trade-Kenny for Brian Grant-Miami would jump at it and
never look back. Riley is going to be a little under the cap with Grant.
Without his salary, he'd be under far enough to make a play for one of the
studs-Duncan, Kidd, Olowokandi, Brand, Payton, Miller, etc. But Seattle
doesn't want to do the trade because if they keep Kenny and let his contract
come off the books, they can be players in the free agent market and go
after Kidd (their rumored target). Boston was willing to trade Kenny for a
longer-term contract because they weren't going to be significantly under
the cap even without Kenny's cap hit. But they picked the absolute worst guy
to trade for. And they made the trade at the wrong time. Teams that fall out
of contention are going to start planning for the offseason-like Miami,
Seattle, etc. Suddenly an expiring contract has even more value for teams
turning their attention to the free agent market. The Celts could have had
Grant, I'm sure. Or probably any number of other players with longer-term
contracts. I wouldn't be surprised, given the way the Pacers are playing and
their rumored interest in the offseason, if the Celts couldn't have turned
Kenny into Tinsley and Croshere or Jeff Foster or Bender or some other
package, because the Pacers are looking to dump contracts to make room for
all the re-signings they have coming up. Wallace completely blew the Kenny
situation by taking a terrible, terrible, indefensible deal. He got the
worst player and the worst contract in the deal. That's unheard of. He
didn't even get draft picks to sweeten it. I still can't believe it to this
day.

And the Hawks... You have to think the Hawks are ready to start over.
They're a mess. I'd watch them closely as the trading deadline approaches,
because they have some guys who can be decent players. I doubt they start
giving away Shareef or Big Dog, but guys like Terry, Mohammed, Ratliff,
Henderson-they could be available. The Celts probably don't have anything
that could get a deal done, but the Hawks just seem like one of those teams
that needs to burn it down and start again.

Mark