Ainge takes first steps - Mark Murphy (Boston Herald)

[Eggcentric@xxxxxxx]

< Ainge knows better than most by now that as invaluable as Walker has 
been to the Celtics' rise over the last two seasons, the Celtics' co-captain 
also has too many league-wide detractors to ever bring equal value in a 
trade. Two years from now, when Walker is in his final year, the dynamic 
will be different.

But moving him now would not only be difficult on the basis of matching 
up salaries, it would also, at best, bring two or three players of mid-level 
or lower ability into the fold. > - Mark Murphy

I have posted several times dating back several months my understanding 
that the Celts have been shopping Walker. They have come up empty.  
Thus Ainge, although I had hoped he might find a way, has been left with 
no option but to retain Walker and try to improve his conditioning and 
head.  Translation - we are stuck with AW for at least one more season. 

No team, and believe me just about all of them have been contacted, 
has stepped forward to trade a productive All-Star or any single player 
of value for Walker (i.e. Brand, as some optimists here have suggested).  
Therefore, to match AW's max salary realistically means taking on two 
or three mediocre discards in his place. 

For all those trade junkies who have suggested

WALKER ($13.5 mill) and a draft choice ($0 mill) 

for 

FIZER ($3.7 mill) and either CRAWFORD ($2.6 mill) or J.  WILLIAMS
($3.7 mill)

the math falls many millions short of working.  Chicago would also 
have to kick in with an Eddie Robinson type ($6.2 mill) to complete 
the salary cap balancing act.  Is our jack of all trades but master of 
none Walker worth three such players to Chicago?  I fear not.  

As long as we are stuck with the attached-at-the hip Obie and Walker, 
little will change.  Unless Ainge pulls of a huge coup in the draft and
pulls a franchise rabbit out our mid-level exception hat, realistically
our short era of playoff success is over.  For as other teams continue 
to add to their talent base, we are only able to add band-aids to our 
roster. 

Like a weak stock coming off a dead cat bounce, we will have to
retest our previous lows before our next upswing.  Achieving the
playoffs this year only served to postpone the inevitable.

Egg
--------------
Ainge takes first steps 

NBA Notes/by Mark Murphy 
Sunday, May 18, 2003

In some circles it's going to look like a status quo decision, or action 
by inaction.  But if Danny Ainge really wants to get to the meat of the 
challenge facing the Celtics over the next year - finding talent with  
low draft picks and no cap space - then signing coach Jim O'Brien to an 
extension and accepting the fact that Antoine Walker wasn't going 
anywhere are indeed the first steps.

Ainge would love to pare down the salaries on this team, but faces one 
immovable boulder of a problem.  In Walker, Paul Pierce and Vin Baker, he 
has three maximum salaries and only two maximum performance players.

The Baker mess, barring retirement or the improbable rise of Vin from 
the ashes next season, is an unmovable obstacle for another three years.