Re: espn draft news

[Kestutis.Kveraga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- You wrote:
>It makes me think that Ainge will have to do it around the edges; well, Joe
Dumars did it.

You mean trade their best player to make the "team" better?  Turn over 25%
of the roster this year to make the "team" competitive beyond the second
round?

Heresy.
--- end of quote ---

There is a nice feature on how Joe Dumars rebuilt the Pistons by David
Aldridge.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2003/story?id=1558834

A couple of relevant quotes:

"I do believe that just walking out there and winning with two stars, and seven
guys that you're playing, it's going to be harder and harder to win like that,"
Dumars says. "Teams are building their teams to be a lot deeper than that, and
their style of play is reflective of that. And if you look at the teams that
are left, they're not playing six or seven guys; they're playing eight and nine
guys."

[My comment: gee, what a novel concept - building a TEAM, instead of having
one-and-a-half stars, who can do whatever the hell they want, and a bunch of
scrubs.]

"I don't think there's any foolproof way to make it work," Dumars says. "You've
got to work at it. You've got to put the time and effort in. ".  

[My comment: what, you don't need to consult "brain doctors" and witch doctors
and shamans to figure out whom to get?! Shocking. . . ] 

Speaking of "brain doctors", Peter May keeps perpetuating the myth in his
Sunday column by apologetically noting that Niednagel allegedly had nothing to
do with the T-Wolves' failed pick Marcus Taylor (of course not -  he's never
been wrong , remember?) and calling him "Dr. Jonathan Niednagel". Hey Pete,
what's Niednagel a doctor of? Three-card Monte? And where did he earn his
doctorate, the State Pen? Nice, thorough journalistic work, Pete. 
(I would have written to ol' Pete, but he doesn't list his e-mail, no doubt to
avoid tiresome, nitpicky e-mails from his readers. As we are learning again and
again with journalists, facts and reality just get in the way of a good
column). 

Kestas