Today's Insider news

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

Here's the latest from Insider. Chad Ford did his own updated mock draft,
and the results for the C's leave me thoroughly unimpressed. As Ford says
below, "Now you know why they're trying to trade up in the draft." Here's
the short version: He has Ridnour at 16 and Baby Shaq at 20. Ugh. My
concerns about both guys can be summed up this way: Too short, too slow.
Ridnour is small, slow, shoot-first and falls in love with his jumper.
Sofklis is short (not small) and, by all accounts, a little lead-footed. You
can tell from video of the guy that his hands are bad. Best case scenario,
he's Charles Oakley. And that's awfully optimistic. Anyway, he also mocks
the second round, and has the Celts taking Brandon Hunter. Another ugh.

I've also pasted the daily rumor mill a little lower. The Celts still are
talking about that fourth pick, but it sounds like the prospects are
dimming. The only other Celtic-related tidbit is troubling in that it is
very complementary of Songaila and thinks the Kings got a steal. Doesn't the
timing of this trade seem a little strange to anyone else? Two days before
the draft? Why do it now, instead of draft night? Typically these kinds of
trades are made because you see someone you want. Makes me wonder if it
wasn't made in order to acquire the second-rounder as currency for another
deal. They've had a lot of early/mid second rounders in for workouts, so it
wouldn't shock me to see them use the 56th pick as part of some deal that
nets them a trade in that early/mid second round range. Just a thought.

Mark


Luke Ridnour
No 2: Alexsandar Pavlovic, Serbia
Sleeper Pick: Boris Diaw, France
The Skinny: We're not sure who leaked it that the Celtics were in love with
Banks. It backfired. Everyone raised a suspicious eyebrow when he stopped
working out and now everyone seems to be enamored with him. The Celtics
thought they'd get him with the 20th pick. Now he might not be around at No.
16. That could leave the Celtics choosing between Luke Ridnour, Leandrinho
Barbosa and Reece Gaines. They'd love to get their hands on Gaines. But he
won't slip this far. Ridnour shoots the ball well enough to survive and his
flashy style would be a hit with the fans. If he's off the board, they may
dump their point guard pursuits and grab Pavlovic. GM Danny Ainge was blown
away in his first workout and he won't be available when they pick again at
No. 20. Ainge just left for trip to France to check out Boris Diaw. You
don't leave the country this late in the draft process unless you're serious
about a guy.


Sofklis S. 
No 2: Zaur Pachulia, Rep. of Georgia
Sleeper Pick: Kendrick Perkins, Ozen High (Texas)
The Skinny: Now you know why they're trying to trade up in the draft.
Somehow it's hard to believe that the combination of Ridnour and
Schortsanitis will put you over the top. But that's what the Celtics are
faced with. They'd like to go big with one of their picks and are said to be
mulling Sofoklis, Zaur Pachulia and high school big man Kendrick Perkins
here. All three are projects. All three have a flaw that makes teams
suspicious. Both Sofoklis and Perkins are bit undersized in the height
department and oversized in the waist area. All three are a couple years
away from contributing now.


Brandon Hunter
Insider's Pick: He's a monster. He's undersized to play the four, but his
7-foot-3 wingspan will help compensate for things. He may be the strongest
player in the draft. He aslo has a nice vertical and is pretty quick for
someone his size. He can score in the post, is a tenacious rebounder and
runs the floor well. If he was two inches taller, he'd be a lottery pick,
but as it is, the Celtics get a nice player late in the second.



We've been saying for days the Raptors were the team to watch in trade
talks. Late Tuesday night, they may have finally come up with a winner. 
"Yeah, there is some talk going on," Raptors GM Glen Grunwald told the
Toronto Star. "There's always a chance of doing something. How likely? I
don't know right now." 
After flirting with the Knicks, Blazers, Mavs, Bulls and Celtics -- the
Raptors began talking about a deal with the Sonics that may be too good to
pass up. 
Insider first reported on ESPN News Monday evening the Raptors and Sonics
were discussing a deal that would send Vladimir Radmanovic
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=10013> ,
Brent Barry and the No. 12 pick to Toronto for Jerome Williams, Michael
Bradley <http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=503>
and the No. 4 pick in the draft. 
Why are the Sonics willing to give up so much to move up eight spots in the
draft? They are convinced that Chris Bosh
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18511>  has
the talent to be an All-Star power forward in the league. While the team
would settle on Nick Collison
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18443> ,
Michael Sweetney
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18448>  or
Brian Cook
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18450>
later in the lottery, none of them have Bosh's upside. Recently, several GMs
have been comparing him to a young Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and even
Jermaine O'Neal. The Sonics believe he's exactly what they need in the post.

The Raptors, who feel they need to put a winning team on the floor this
year, aren't going to get a better deal than that. Radmanovic has the
trappings of a solid NBA small forward, Barry can play the one or the two
and is in the last year of his deal, and at No. 12 they would likely be able
to grab the guy they really like, Georgetown's Mike Sweetney. A line-up of
Alvin Williams, Vince Carter, Vladimir Radmanovic, Mike Sweetney and Antonio
Davis would be tough to beat in the East. 
Several things are giving the Sonics pause about the deal however. One,
they'd prefer to leave Barry and Williams out and make it a straight
Radmanovic and the No. 12 for Bradley and the No. 4. While Williams would
give the Sonics immediate help in the post, he has a whopping five years
remaining on his deal. Barry, on the other hand, is done after this season
and could be valuable trade bait in his own right. In an ideal world, the
Sonics would love to package Barry and the No. 14 pick to Miami in return
for the No. 5. They would use that pick to select KU's Kirk Hinrich
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18442> . 
They're also loathe to pass on Radmanovic, whom they still believe has the
potential to be a star. The problem for Seattle is that Radmanovic and
Rashard Lewis play the same position. The Sonics tried to move Radmanovic to
the four this year, but he was uncomfortable playing in the post. If the
Sonics are going to get someone with star potential at the four, they're
going to have to part with Radmanovic to do it. 
Radmonivic's agent David Baumann told the Tacoma Tribune he hoped his client
was traded if the team drafts a power forward. "Vladimir wants to play,"
Baumann said. "If they draft a power forward, somebody's minutes are going
to get cut. If that is the case, I would hope they would make a move to cut
their ties with Vlade by trading him." 
If the deal does go through, the Sonics will use their 14th pick on a point
guard. Currently UNLV's Marcus Banks
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18487> ,
Brazil's Leandrinho Barbosa
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18545> ,
Louisville's Reece Gaines
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18451>  and
Oregon's Luke Ridnour
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18434>  are
under consideration with the team leaning toward drafting Banks. 
More trade talk 
*  The Raptors have been in talks with several other teams, but most of that
seems to have cooled. Talk of a possible deal that would send Latrell
Sprewell to Toronto is dead according to several media outlets. The Chicago
Tribune is also reporting that Toronto offered its fourth overall pick and
forward Lamond Murray for the Bulls' pick at No. 7 and Donyell Marshall.
According to the Tribune, GM John Paxson shot that deal down. The Raptors
pursued Marshall in free agency last summer. 
*  That doesn't mean the Knicks won't trade Spree. Coach Don Chaney said on
Monday the team is trying. "Nobody's safe when you're trying to improve the
team," Chaney told the NY Post. "His name always come up in trades simply
because he's a good player. If there's a great deal that comes along,
anybody can be traded, not just Latrell." 
Among the players the Post says the Knicks are after? The Sixers' Keith Van
Horn, Houston's Eddie Griffin
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=479> ,
Dallas' Raef LaFrentz and Shawn Bradley, Portland's Dale Davis, Memphis'
Stromile Swift and Lorenzen Wright and Chicago's Marcus Fizer. 
*  Nets GM Rod Thorn laughed off reports that he'd consider a sign-and-trade
with the Mavs for Jason Kidd. "It's not anything I'm going to do," Thorn
told the New York Daily News. "You can do it. (But) I am not interested in
doing it. There will be a lot of rumors and innuendos in the next week or
two until he makes his decision. . .For a sign-and-trade, the player and two
teams have to be agreeable to it. Why do that?" 
*  Bulls GM John Paxson says it's unlikely that he'll move their pick with
Jay Williams future in doubt. "What Jay's injury did was take away some
flexibility we have,'' Paxson told the Chicago Sun Times. "It wasn't a
priority that we were going to go out and trade one of our guards. 
"As you can imagine, there are a lot of teams around the league who don't
have a point guard and were asking us what we could possibly do. There was
nothing imminent or close, but you do have discussions along those lines.
But now we don't have that option, so that's off the board.'' 
With Williams injury, it appears that Dwyane Wade may now have moved into
the top position for the Bulls. "It puts some guys on our board that
probably weren't there a week ago,'' Paxson said. "There's also ways to
address the guard position in free agency and other things.It does not all
of a sudden become a priority for us to go out and draft another guard. But
it does put some people in play who weren't in play a week ago.'' 
Paxson all but confirmed he won't trade the pick. 
"It's very likely now we'll have that pick,'' he said. 
*  The first trade before the draft didn't make much of a splash. The
Celtics sent the rights to Darius Songaila
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=15702>  to
the Kings for two second round picks. This year that gives the Celtics the
rights to the 56th pick in the draft. 
Songaila was one of the best players on one of the top teams in Europe this
year. He averaged 14.5 ppg in the Euroleague Final Four and many GMs
commented that he'd have been a Top 15 pick in this year's draft had he
performed that well in Europe before putting his name on the draft. 
It could be a steal for the Kings. It gives them a smart, tough player to
put in the post. He's a great passer, knows how to score with his back to
the basket and he's tough. He lacks athleticism, but he's a great guy to
bring off the bench. 
Stock Watch 
*  Polish forward Maciej Lampe
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18461>  got
a big compliment from the Sonics after he worked out there on Monday. The
Sonics were one of the first teams to claim that Lampe wasn't a legit
lottery prospect. After seeing him on Monday, that's changed. 
"You don't necessarily have secrets, but you do have mistakes made in
evaluations of European players simply because you don't see them as often,"
David Pendergraft, Seattle's director of player personnel told the Seattle
Times. "Lampe was the only European (that) I didn't see multiple times and
quite frankly, I screwed up on my evaluation. 
"I knew who he was. I knew who he played for, but when I saw him that one
time, he had a horrible game. ... Some of my friends said, 'David, he's
better than what you think.' " 
"I'm not going to say he was a 180-degree different from what we saw, but he
was considerably better. The point is, you have to spend time over there and
see as many players as you can multiple times or you're going to miss
something." 
*  Knicks GM Scott Layden had some praise for Sofoklis Schortsanitis
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18546>
after he worked out for the Knicks on Monday. "This is a big guy and very
strong," Layden told the N.Y. Times. "Picture going into a high school game
this past year and looking out on the court and saying: 'There's Sofoklis.
What a great prospect.' He's a young guy with tremendous potential and his
size is going to benefit him. In the N.B.A., he's very, very strong. He runs
well and has good footwork for a guy at that size and at that experience
level." 
Monday's workout was the second for Sofoklis with the Knicks. Right now
Sofoklis stock seems to be in the mid first round. 
*  Texas point guard T. J. Ford continues to see his stock drop after a
series of lackluster workouts. Meanwhile KU's Kirk Hinrich now may have
passed him on several draft boards, including Miami's at No. 5. If the Heat
can't move their pick, there's a shot that they could take Hinrich there.
What happened to Ford? 
"Everyone loves him in games," one GM said. "But it's easy to pick on his
flaws in workouts. The size and shooting issues really stand out to the
point the overshadow his ability to create. I don't think he should be
dropping. Sometime we put too much emphasis on workouts." 
*  North Dakota's Jerome Beasley
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nbadraft/d03/tracker/player?playerId=18475>
still has an outside shot at making the first round. But could he go as high
as the mid first round? The Hornets may be interested. They've been doing
some extensive background checks on Beasley. Originally, the Hornets' plan
was to take someone like Brian Cook here. With Cook moving up and out, at
least one source in New Orleans claims that Bob Bass has become enamored
with Beasley. This is pretty high for Beasley to go, but factor in the goofy
comments above, and it just might make some sense. 
*  Western Kentucky's Chris Marcus worked out for dour NBA teams -- the
Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets -- on
Monday. Marcus, who was once considered a lottery pick, tried to show teams
that his surgically repaired foot was going to be alright. 
"You can still see that high extension (to the basket) and soft shots," the
Magic's Gary Brokaw told the Charlotte Observer. "I just hope he gets back
in basketball shape." 
Marcus weighed about 30 pounds above his playing weight. "It doesn't hurt to
walk on it or jump on it," said Marcus. "In the morning it feels a little
stiff, but after a couple of steps it's fine. No more hobbling around."