re: Battie & Williams

[wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hey, hey, hey what can you say, it's the old axiom: You have to give up something
to get something. Williams has value because of his contract, and if he flourishes
under the new system, that will only increase his appeal. While O'Brien
may put up a bit of a fuss at any Williams deal, he quite well understands 
Ainge's perspective.  

And anyone not named Pierce is on the Celtics endangered list.
Marcus Banks even.  Hey, if someone offers the C's an All-Star PG,
how soon do you think Banks would be gone....
Ray
 

> ** Original Subject: Battie & Williams
> ** Original Sender: Mark Piotrowski <markp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ** Original Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 07:36:01 -0700 (PDT)

> ** Original Message follows... 

>
> Everyone and their grandmother (in the Boston press) seems to be 
> chiming in this morning about how either Battie or Williams or both may 
> be gone next.
> 
> > Ainge said Monday he's not through dealing. Who's next? Tony Battie?
> > Williams? He'd hate that. Absolutely hate it. "Antoine and I were the
> > oldest Celtics," said Williams. "That bond was broken. In the back of
> > my mind I'm thinking, I'm on the last year of my contract. Maybe
> > they're totally going in a new direction."
> >
> > Listen to coach Jim O'Brien and you'd think Williams didn't have
> > anything to worry about. That he'd be around for a while. "I told Eric
> > the other day, 'You give me confidence when you're on the floor,"' said
> > O'Brien. Williams had 18 points in 19 minutes in the Celtics' 96-80
> > cruise over the Timberwolves last night at the FleetCenter.
> 
> While I'd personally like to see the C's hold onto both (see previous 
> post on Battie), if I had to choose, I'd like to see Eric Williams 
> stay.  It's obvious OB sees him as the leader, and I've often thought 
> EWill would make the perfect 6th/7th man to anchor the 2nd unit and 
> provide off-the-bench energy/hustle/leadership.  I think he's 
> comfortable enough with his role to not care about starting too.
> 
> I'd like to see the C's resign him this summer to a reasonable contract 
> -- a tad over the Vet. min. -- since i doubt he'd get much more 
> elsewhere.  However the writing certainly looks to be on the wall with 
> Kedrick & Jones the SF of the future.
> 
> The rumor that Boston and Toronto were talking about Battie (+ Mills) 
> for Antonio Davis really perked up my ears.  I had suggested earlier 
> this year a Walker for Davis trade, so if they could get AD for Battie 
> it's an example of one of those "true" PF's i'd trade Battie for.  Heck 
> throw in Dallas' 1st rounder if you have to.  AD wants out of Toronto 
> and may unleash himself on the EC if he gets his way -- and he'd fit 
> right into the renewed running C's.
> 
> I'd love a lineup of:
> 
> 1/  Banks
> 2/  Pierce
> 3/  Brown
> 4/  A. Davis
> 5/  LaFrentz
> 
> and a 2nd (3rd) Unit of:
> 1/  James
> 2/  EWill (Welsch)
> 3/  Jones (McCarty)
> 4/  Baker (Hunter)
> 5/  Perkins (Blount)
> 
> The other nice thing about AD is that his contract runs 2 more years 
> (Like Baker's) when he'll be 38.  With 2 expiring nearly-max salaries 
> (AD + Baker) it seems we'd be in a great position to add a premium FA 
> to go with our core of Banks/Pierce/LaFrentz/Perkins/Brown/(hopefully a 
> reasonably resigned)Ewill/Welsch.
> 
> (the other) Mark

>** --------- End Original Message ----------- **