I got a bad feelin' about this ...

[Peter Delevett <pdelevett@xxxxxxxxx>]

Coming late to this thread ... I think this is a
terr-rrr-ible trade. I mean, I have never been a fan
of trading Walker, but if you have to move him, you
absolutely have to get more in exchange than Raef
LaFrentz. Nothing against LaFrentz, but Dallas thought
he was going to be the answer to their interior woes,
and then they discovered they *still* needed a big man
and interior presence. And if I'm reading this
correctly, the C's have traded Walker's soon-to-expire
mammoth contract for one with six years and, what, $60
million on it? (Note this line from the Dallas Snoring
News: "With Delk's deal added in, the Mavericks will
be relieving themselves of about $35 million in salary
over the life of all the contracts." For Chrissake,
you don't do a deal with MARK FRIGGIN CUBAN and come
away with the worse contracts!!) 

Yes, the Celtics will theoretically have a more
traditional power forward now. Yes, Antoine had made
it clear he was not going to change his playing style,
and the team was not likely to win No. 17 as presently
constituted. But here's the biggest beef I have with
this deal: One thing opposing teams always had to do
was guard Walker. Now who is there to relieve Pierce
from doubleteams? It's going to be the Paul Pierce
Show Unltd., and it's going to be ugly. Kiss off any
chance of winning the East this year or for the
foreseeable future; with big soft LaFrentz up front,
this team is headed to Rebuilding Land. 

This deal actually makes me yearn for the
unconsummated Chicago trade, which I thought sucked.
At least in that scenario you got two serviceable
frontcourt players. Now you get one. Welsch has yet to
display anything whatsoever, and Mills is done. Maybe
we can trade him to the Knicks for Walter McCarty ...
oh wait, we've already done that. 

Clearly more moves to come. Either Mills gets waived,
or E Will and/or Kedrick get shipped. Damn, what a
crappy time to do this. 


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