Three Good Reasons not to trade Twan now

[PScottman@xxxxxxx]

Those that know me know I've never been much of an Antoine Walker fan. Too much flash, not enough substance was always the way I thought about him. He'd rather make the behind the back pass then the bounce pass. The 25 footer over the two footer. He's always been "just inches away" from being a good player, but his habits got in the way even when he was trying to do the fundementally sound thing.

Yet it would be utter foolishness to trade him this offseason unless you got the "WOW!" deal and those type of deals are few and far between these days. Why is it so bad you ask? Shouldn't we cut bait now before the sharks circle even more?

Three reasons:

1. Contract year. I could be wrong, but isn't next season his contract year? You NEVER trade a guy before his contract year. Even poor players have worth as expiring contracts and with AWs stock pretty low right now imagine these two scenarios - AW is the type that KNOWS he's playing for a new contract ergo he'll be in shape, he'll get more rebounds, more assists, everything to pad his stats going into negotiations next season and add that to a very large contract chunk coming off the books for some team at the deadline? That's like trade bait heaven - suddenly his stock can't GET any higher (that's not even mentioning any playoff team wanting to "rent" a guy like AW (let's say like Dallas for example) to come off the bench).

2. A max salary coming off the books. We keep him and suddenly we're major players in FA with Pierce still signed the following summer. Sure, we'd still have Baker clogging the works, but we'd have way more flexibility then if we take two (or more) matching contracts this summer in trade because at least one of those will have to be 'filler' and we can't afford any more 'filler' contracts on this team. The Celtics MUST maximize every signing for use due to carrying three MAX salaries. The Luxury tax will keep teams dumping nice complimentary vets into the system every June to fill a roster and with the new owners and some cap room we can jump on them instead of mirroring this year where we had to wait then pick up Long, Coles, etc. Suddenly guys like Strickland and Rogers are well within our sights again to round out the bench.

3. Chemistry. This is the weakest of the three arguments, but warrants mentioning. Say what you want about Walker, but he keeps this team together. This isn't a knock on Pierce, but his past (through the world games) indicates that he's not the easiest guy to play with for some people (JUST like AW). Perhaps it is all OB and this will be a non-issue, but put together with the other two reasons plus giving the two new draft picks and Ainge's GM work a chance to ropund out a very limited team and suddenly it seems to me that anything else is just knee-jerk "I hate the guy and want him gone at any cost" reaction.

Again - gimme a "WOW!" trade - a serviceable PG and All-star or on the cusp of becoming one PF or vice versa and I'll sign right up to say "he's gone tomorrow", but otherwise I think we're giving up too much flexibility.