Ainge can check Antoine off his list

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

      Ainge can check Antoine off his list

      By Steve Kerr
      October 20, 2003




      The day Danny Ainge moved into his new office as GM of the Boston
Celtics, he knew he wanted to trade Antoine Walker.

      The thought was that Boston would never win with Paul Pierce and Walker
dominating both the ball and the team's salary cap. With Monday's trade of
Antoine to Dallas (along with Tony Delk, in return for Raef LaFrentz, Jiri
Welsch, Chris Mills and a first round pick next year), Ainge accomplished his
goal of moving the mercurial Walker.

      The question is, will the trade make the Celtics better, both this
season and in the future?

      In LaFrentz, Jim O'Brien has a big man who can step out on the floor and
make threes - something the Boston coach loves. Of course, that's what Walker
did too.

      The difference is that Raef is a pick-and-roll, pick-and-pop type
shooter whereas Antoine wants the ball in his hands. Perhaps now the Celtics'
offense will open up a bit, and allow more players to be involved. But this
trade doesn't dramatically change the team's look.

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      It's a risk for the Celtics to take on LaFrentz's contract however,
which has six years and $60 million remaining. Walker will be a free agent in
two years (he makes $14 million per year), so the Celtics could have realized
valuable cap space simply by letting him play out the string.

      Still, Walker wanted an extension - something Ainge wasn't going to
offer - and the chemistry of the team could have suffered. And Ainge could
hardly wait around and watch his team tread water for the next couple of
seasons without doing anything. There weren't going to be many offers for
Walker, so this was the best the new Celtics boss could do.

      As for Dallas, this move makes no sense other than for cap reasons (Mark
Cuban made a trade in order to save money? Say it ain't so!). The Mavs
unloaded a guy they didn't like much who has six years left on his deal.

      But they added a player who needs the ball in his hands, and if there's
one thing the Mavs already have plenty of it's players who need the ball!
Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Antawn Jamison provide plenty of
scoring. I don't see the logic in adding Walker to that group.



Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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