Re: Josh's Thoughts on The Trade

["Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yeah, we'll see enough of Antoine spinning in the lane, firing the mortars
and doing his shuffle...........but in Dallas.......get the NBA package and
get enough of Antoine......

DanF


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <celtics@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 1:33 PM
Subject: Josh's Thoughts on The Trade


> 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 bee!
>  n 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 ge!
>  t 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.