Josh's Thoughts on The Trade

[wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Don't forget to go to Hoopsworld and support those popups....

http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_5726.shtml

The Celtics Report By Josh Ozersky for HOOPSWORLD.com Oct 20, 2003, 11:52 

   	
The Debate is Over. For seven years, the agonizing "Antoine Debate" has defined the Celtics and their fans. Antoine's admirers, who included Larry Bird and Tommy Heinsohn, pointed out his versatility, his peerless competitive spirit, his leadership, and his baffling ability to take almost anyone off the dribble. His detractors retorted with equally telling points of their own. Antoine, they said, was a hydrocephalic egoist who still, after seven years in the league, launched mindless three-pointers, drove into traffic, and dominated the ball to an unconscionable degree. To claims about his versatility, they pointed out that while he could rebound better than a guard and pass and dribble better than a forward, he couldn't do either as well as a traditional specialist, and deprived the Celtics of quality production at either the 1 or 4 spots. "Name me one thing he does well," one GM challenged Steve Bulpett.
Now the debate is over. Antoine Walker is no longer a Celtic.
It's hard for me to write those words. I understood better than most of his detractors, I think, what Antoine Walker's limitations were. He did his work facing the basket because he lacks explosiveness around the rim, and can be easily blocked by athletic players down low. He liked the three pointers because he played long and hard, never resting on defense, and the three-pointer was a dangerous weapon in his hands, albeit an unreliable one. But as more than a few erstwhile Antoine defenders have said in emails to me this morning, Antoine was the Celtics. He set the example for dedication, competition, leadership. The other players legitimately looked up to him and liked him. The Celtics were one of the few teams whose players hung around with other socially, almost to a man; and that chemistry, which proceeded directly from Antoine's generous heart, is over with now. People were surprised at how well the Paul Pierce / Antoine Walker partnership worked, since Antoine had been so invested in his identity as a scorer. But Pierce was better, and Antoine wanted to win. More importantly, Pierce isn't really a vocal leader by nature; Antoine's assertiveness freed him to just play his game. Now he's the leader, and we'll have to see how that will work. I will miss Antoine. I don't think that Raef LaFrench is nearly the player he is.
But I think the trade had to happen, and I think that in the long run, it brings us closer to a championship. Here's why.
Antoine Walker's skills, though prodigious, were only occasionally the sort that led to championships. When posting up down low against an inferior defender, his passing skills could open up the whole court. When you would see him hitting cutters over his shoulder or running a give-and-go with Tony Battie, it was like a glimpse of everything you hoped for from a good Celtics team. More often, though, everyone stood around and watched him make something happen. The imperative for this season had to been to install a running game, the better to share the wealth and (ostensibly) to relieve the isolation burden on Pierce and Walker. In truth, no team has ever won a title playing the kind of "you get yours after I get mine" offense that Walker required. His weaknesses, excusable in himself, became the weaknesses of the whole team. The deciding moment, I suspect, came last week when Antoine made the following remarks to the Boston Herald:
"It's very difficult for a rookie to come in and play on a team where the 
ball is dominated by two players. He has to find away he's going to be 
effective in the system. What a lot of people have got to understand is 
guys are brought in to fit into me and Paul...We've talked about playing 
up-tempo, but that's about it. To be honest, when all is said and done, 
it's back to the grind, as always."
To call this ill-considered misses the point. Toine rarely dissembled to reporters; one of the many things to like about him in person was his willingness to talk frankly about basketball matters. What these words told me (and, I suspect, Ainge) was that Toine hadn't bought in to the idea of a running game; he still saw himself as the primary ballhandler and shooter. But running isn't something you do three times a game; it has to be the first reflex for all five players. I had hoped that Antoine, with his fabulous dribble, would have flourished in that system; but it wasn't to be. 
Of course, you can't judge any trade by only looking at one side. Maybe Antoine had to go. But what did we get for him? A couple of years ago, the names you heard discussed for Toine, at least by fans, were other all-stars -- guys who had the rare gift of creating their own shot and demanding a double team, or young big men of untapped promise. But that wasn't Antoine's value on the marketplace. Antoine now returns to the place from which he came: for the pick with which we got him was originally acquired from Dallas. I'm willing to believe that Raef LaFrentz, Jiri Welsch, and a pick are the best Walker could fetch, but are they good enough? 
LaFrentz didn't put up very impressive numbers last year on the overstocked Mavs; but the previous year, his numbers were .458 shooting, 13.5 points a game, 7.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and (most importantly) 2.73 blocks, 2nd in the NBA. That last statistic is a little misleading -- LaFrentz isn't a great one-on-one shotblocker, like Tim Duncan or Ben Wallace. He blocks most of his shots on another's defenders assignment, coming from the weak side. But that's perfect for the O'Brien / Harter help defense system. More importantly, his offensive skills are ideally suited to an uptempo system. He can score from all over, knows how to work and play well with others, and gets rid of the ball in a flash if he doesn't have a good opportunity. More importantly, his presence in the lineup opens up much-needed minutes and shots for Kedrick Brown, Vin Baker, and, one hopes, Brandon Hunter too. In a way, you should think of the trade as being for those guys as well, since they will now get an opportunity they couldn't have had with Antoine in place. As for the rest of the deal: Welsch is a big, talented combo guard that might turn out to be the next Ginobli (or not.) Mills is a throw in. But don't turn your nose up at the Mavs' pick because it will probably be in the high 20s: just this year, we got Kendrick Perkins with that pick. And there is always the possibility that we can sweeten another deal with it, or trade up in the next draft. 
So we lose the Celtics' leader, their most talented big man, and the only elite scorer other than Paul Pierce. And we gain an upgrade on defense, a better uptempo player in attitude if not in skills, a higher shooting-percentage, and more time and shots for the talented players we already have on our roster. We add the shooting guard we needed, and get a pick too. It's not a trade to exult over, but it might help get us closer to a title. Still, it's a huge risk, comparable to signing Vin Baker a couple of years ago. And for those of us, like me, who lived and died with Antoine and watched him develop as a player and a man for the past seven years, it can't help but feel like a deep emotional loss. We'll never see him launch a three-point brick with 20 points left on the shot clock, but we'll never see him pirouette into the lane and drop in a spinning bank shot that you would never see before, and never see again. You won't have to see him get stuffed by Kenyon Martin; but you also won't see him dominate and dismay Cliff Robinson or Jermaine O'Neal either. When Antoine was drafted, the Celtics were at their lowest and most dismal ebb. Reggie Lewis was as dead as Len Bias, and M.L. Carr was the coach and GM. I was 28, marooned in a cold place far from home, and he brought my dormant love and hope for the Celtics back to life. I screamed at him, argued about him, finally got to meet him and talk to him, and came to feel like he was part of my family, for good and evil. Now he's gone. But let's have a moment to feel how much he meant to the Celtics franchise, and the Celtics family, for these last seven years. And hope that the Celtics will find a way to replace the huge, gaping space he has left behind.