Re: [Celtics' Stuff ] Knicks Lose Wallace to Detroit

[Celtic4Hire@xxxxxxx]

My understanding was Detroit was effectively renting Wallace, that they could 
not resign both Okur and Wallace. But this article disagrees with that. If 
that is true, you would think Danny really should have held out for more, at 
least an additional second round pick. It had seemed to me at the time that 
Detroit was only willing to give up one draft pick to gain cap space for Okur. If 
they could get Wallace also, they would give up two. But what if the other 
alternatie was that Atlanta would agree to take Atkins for the additional draft 
pic? That is what Danny had to be afraid of, being cut out of the deal. 

Look, we got something out of the deal where we could have gotten nothing. 
Atlanta could have gotten the two picks instead of one and we also wouldn't have 
had the slight upgrade in the point guard situation. It is just a situation 
where Detroit got a great deal and we played a small part in the deal. I think 
people are going to be surprised in how much better the team is going to be 
with Atkins over James. People just want to dump on Danny....

<Because the Pistons now own Wallace's Bird rights, they can use their cap 
space to sign Okur, then sign Wallace for as much as the collective-bargaining 
agreement and their own budget allows. Coach Larry Brown pushed for the Wallace 
trade, knowing it would give the Pistons a dominant front line with Okur and 
Ben Wallace and put them in position to challenge the Nets and Indiana for the 
Eastern Conference title.>