Re: Drafting

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

Don't forget his signing of Bruno Sundov ("a top-7 pick"), Grant Long and
Bimbo Coles (when Tim Hardaway was available). Those were hand-picked guys.

I'm amazed that people still defend Wallace's talent evaluation. He deserves
credit for J.R. Bremer this year and Eric Strickland last year (although I
think everyone knew Strickland had talent-he just happened to be in the
bargain bin). He deserves credit for the Rogers-Delk trade that pushed the
Celts into the ECF last season. But those are it for defendable moves. The
2001 draft? An absolute disaster. Richard Jefferson just was named to the
Olympic team. But apparently there still are Celtic fans who believe Kedrick
would be doing the same thing if he played in Jersey and that Jefferson
would be languishing on the bench in Boston. Suuurrre.Tony Parker is
unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. And he's only 20 years old. Instead we
had Joe Forte, who we were DESPERATE to dump. Troy Murphy averaged a
double-double. Gilbert Arenas just was named Most Improved Player.  All of
these guys were available, and Wallace passed on them-some of them three
times. Joe Johnson shows up about every third game, and that was his rep
BEFORE he was drafted. He'll be a 10-year pro, but so is Bimbo Coles. Vlad
Radmanovic, Brendan Haywood, ZACH RANDOLPH (have you seen what he's doing in
the playoffs?), Jamaal Tinsley, Mehmet Okur... even the second tier of
guys-Steven Hunter, Kirk Haston, Jason Collins, Jarron Collins, Gerald
Wallace... they've all been better than Kedrick and Forte. Others have said
it before, and it's true-you could have put the names of the top 50 players
on a dart board and done a better job than Wallace did in that draft.

Look, the Vin Baker trade should be enough to get him fired and prevent him
from ever getting another job in the NBA. But his drafting record is just as
bad. I'm stunned that people still defend him.

Mark


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Ryan wrote:

I have to disagree with statement that wallace has done an alright job of
picking players and signing free agents.  I give him credit for bremer and
strickland but he passed up quite a few decent players in taking jj and
kedrick (i won't even go into forte, but wallace is the one making
decisions, not red).  

First of all, kedrick can not play.  Walker was talking up vinny baker all
year just as he was kedrick.  that scares me.  seems like kedrick has no
confidence and no killer instinct.  Reminds me of a guy we had in training
camp in about 1989 named eric macarthur.  Tons of athleticism but just can't
play the game.  I won't fault wallace for joe johnson as it seemed like a
good pick at the time.  What i do fault him for is exercising the right to
use denver's pick to take kedrick instead of holding off until the next year
when the pick was #4 I think.  That was just plain stupid.  Everybody said
it at the time too.  Now that jerry krause is gone, wallace is officially
the worst gm in basketball.  Other than signing bremer (after giving omar
cook a guaranteed contract, nice job chris) he has made zero positive moves
and if you take into account the baker idiocy, he has killed this
franchise's chance of a world championshiip during the pierce-walker years
(unless vin retires, gives us cap room, and wallace is fired).  Does anybody
think the celtics can ever win it with wallace making deals?