Ainge takes 'step back' shot from upstairs

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ainge takes 'step back' shot from upstairs
By Jackie MacMullan, Globe Columnist, 10/21/2003

Now that it's done, you can see why this move was inevitable.

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Go back to the initial comments of Celtics basketball boss Danny Ainge when he
was hired to revamp the franchise. He vowed to be proactive yet he promised to
be patient.

Turns out he meant both.

Ainge dealt team captain and three-time All-Star Antoine Walker, along with
Tony Delk, to the Dallas Mavericks for center Raef LaFrentz, guard Jiri
Welsch, salary-cap throw-in Chris Mills, and Dallas's first-round pick in
2004. On the surface, it looks like a lopsided deal that favors the Mavericks,
who have designs on an NBA championship this season.

That's because for this deal to pan out the way the Celtics hope it does, it
will require the passage of time. Consider your local basketball team on a
three-year plan.

"That's about right," Ainge said yesterday.

Ainge was careful to avoid the word "rebuilding." He said he believes after a
short adjustment period, his team will still be competitive, and battling for
a playoff spot this season.

I'll believe that when I see it. Of course, if you are Ainge, and your team's
owners have just jacked up ticket prices, you'd best avoid the "R" word at all
costs. There's nothing paying fans hate more than taking that proverbial "step
back" to move forward.

But that's what is happening here. Ainge determined very quickly that the
Celtics could not win a championship with Walker and Paul Pierce as the
cornerstones. The team needed more, but the weighty contract of Vin Baker left
Ainge with no flexibility.

Baker is untradeable. Pierce, in Ainge's estimation, is a legitimate building
block. So Walker had to go -- particularly since all the team would have
gotten if it let him walk as a free agent in two summers is the mid-level
exception, worth about $5 million.

So now the Celtics have three years to reposition themselves as legitimate
contenders. Now rookie point guard Marcus Banks, who doesn't appear to be
quite as far along as Boston thought he would be, has three years to figure
out this up-tempo system. Welsch, who may well turn out to be the key to this
deal, has three years to acclimate himself to the league. In three years,
Pierce will be 29, his former college teammate LaFrentz 30, and Baker will be
gone. Baker's money will remain, as a calling card for the missing piece to
pull this whole thing together.

Ainge always has been bothered by Walker's poor shot selection and even poorer
shooting percentage. As a broadcaster, he wondered why Walker didn't venture
into the post more, then discovered, when he became the Celtics' head of
basketball operations, that Walker isn't effective on the block because he
doesn't have the strength or lift to execute power moves against larger power
forwards. In other words, he's no Charles Barkley.

But you knew that already. Mavericks coach Don Nelson knows it, too, but
that's not what he was looking for.

"I wanted a point forward, and I got one," said Nelson yesterday. "I think
Antoine needed a change."

Asked if there would be enough basketballs to go around in Dallas with a
potent offense that now includes Walker, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, and
Steve Nash, to name a few, Nelson answered, "There's plenty of balls to go
around if [Walker] is willing to pass -- and I think he is. If he wants to
shoot all those threes, there won't be enough balls. We're not going to keep
him out there shooting eight threes a game."

Nelson declared this trade good for both teams. Celtics fans will be
skeptical, wondering why their team couldn't get more. Walker is only 27, but
our league spies tell us that even Pacers boss Larry Bird, once a vocal Walker
supporter, had soured on his game. The best offer for Walker the Celtics could
muster up during the summer was Knicks forward Kurt Thomas and point guard
Charlie Ward.

LaFrentz and Welsch make more sense. Welsch, the 16th pick in the 2002 draft,
played in his native Czech Republic, then logged two seasons in Slovenia
before landing with Golden State last season, showing all sorts of promise.

"I love Jiri Welsch," Ainge gushed. "He's a 6-foot-7 guy who is a shooter, a
passer, a dribbler, a thinker. And he's a tough kid. I fell in love with him
last year when he worked out for Phoenix before the draft."

Ainge liked him so much that he badgered the Warriors, who acquired his rights
from the Sixers, to deal him. But the Warriors wouldn't part with the
22-year-old guard until Dallas insisted he be part of a nine-player deal in
August that netted Golden State Nick Van Exel. Welsch averaged almost 12
points a game in preseason for the Mavericks playing shooting guard.

"I hated to lose him," Nelson conceded. "He can shoot, almost like Dirk. He
can make the pass. He's a little turnover-prone right now, but he won't be in
a couple of years. He's tough, too. I think he was my leading rebounder at
guard. I wanted him, but we're going for it now. I had no place to get him
time."

Nelson said the same thing doomed LaFrentz, a high post 3-point shooter who
plays center but, according to Nelson, couldn't defend the more rugged Western
pivotmen like Shaquille O'Neal.

Ainge points out that LaFrentz was second in the league in blocked shots two
seasons ago and hits 40 percent from the 3-point line.

"And I think we can use him in the low post," Ainge said. "I've seen him have
success there."

Asked if LaFrentz could be a legitimate threat down low, Nelson said, "I
didn't put him down there, but he has a baseline jumper from the right box."

Ainge insists that he knows LaFrentz is a piece to the puzzle -- not the
piece. No kidding. LaFrentz has been one of the biggest teases in the NBA. One
night he'll haul in 20 rebounds and block 5 shots, but the next he'll play so
listlessly you wonder if it's the same guy. He's a near 7-footer with a
perimeter game. You think Antoine Walker drove you crazy? At times, this kid
will give you different kinds of fits.

"But he'll help the Celtics," Nelson predicted. "He can shoot the three. We
had Dirk at his position, so he couldn't get enough time in our lineup. He's
not strong enough at any one thing to [displace] our guys. They'll get more
out of him than we did."

They'd better. The three-year plan requires LaFrentz to pull his weight in the
middle. He doesn't have to be a three-time All-Star, but he does need to be a
key contributor.

That's what Antoine Walker was, warts and all.

Jackie MacMullan is a Globe columnist. Her e-mail address is
macmullan@xxxxxxxxxx

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

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