Re: Perkins

[Eggcentric@xxxxxxx]

< He'll never be a Moses or a Duncan, but it seems highly likely that he 
will be a good NBA starting center (i.e. 12-15 points and 9+ rebounds pg).>  
 - Josh

Bless you, Josh. You are an eternal optimist.  If Perkins ever produces 
12-15 ppg plus 9+ rpg, well damn, that would be about as good as it gets.

I appreciate the fact that Danny has attempted to address our need for 
a center, but would feel more secure with the pick if it hadn't been
old silver-tongued Leo who put him on to Perkins. Leo has a history 
of lusting over big bodies who are three years to never from being 
productive. You know the line, ''I have been following this kid since Jr. 
High School. If he (fill in the name) waited to enter next year's draft, 
he would have gone top three, no question.''  

Parochial and outdated as my thinking might be, I view drafting high 
school kids as a no-win situation... bad for the kid and bad for the NBA. 
I wish the NBA would stop the practice.  Teams are stuck with these  
young player's salaries while changing their diapers through several 
unproductive years.  And should 10% of them finally prove to be worthy, 
their teams are still stuck with either re-signing them to a much 
larger contract than may be financially feasible at that time, or 
watching them instead eventually reach their heights with other teams. 

As a fan, I resent paying increasing $$$ to view an increasing percentage
of players who are less than NBA quality.  If NBA teams are going to dig 
so deep as to draft high school kids or other such raw upsiders, they 
should at least have a MINOR LEAGUE in which to stash these players.  
That way these 2-3 year projects would not count against their team's 
roster or cap/luxury tax until they were actually ready to earn their 
keep in the big show.  
 
Egg