Re: Mercer talks about next season

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

>From: Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>
>
>Pierce, it seems to me, is a better defender than Ron and has the 
>three point skills necessary to stretch out a defense.  Ron's game 
>seems to be more suited to be a NBA small forward anyways, while 
>Pierce has the ability to be a big guard in the mold of Steve Smith or 
>Michael Finley.

I don't see this at all in Ron's game.  He's not nearly physical enough to play forward in the NBA.  In fact, the Celtics have used Greg Minor and Bruce Bowen, rather than Ron, when they have needed a forward.  Ron's a catch-and-shoot, slash-to-the-hoop, shooting guard. He's a pretty good one, who is not worth nearly a maximum contract yet.  He will be given the opportunity to sign a substantial contract this summer and to turn it down he will have to take the chance that another team will be willing to shell out more after next year for his not that remarkable skills.  

Pierce, indeed, does show a lot more to his game than Ron.  He's bigger and stronger (and slower) than Ron and is much better suited to the forward position, particularly on defense, where Ron would get abused in the post.  Just because Pierce can shoot the three, doesn't make him a shooting guard.

Is Antoine a "small forward"?  Maybe.  But, I think he's a tweener, in a good way.  That is, one that can play both positions, rather than one that isn't good enough to play either,  So he will play 4 with Pierce and 3 with Battie.  Whatever his "natural position" is, he's going to have to play with both bigger and smaller forwards if he's going to play 40 minutes a night.  I've said it before, it's his versatility that makes his so valuable.

>There are also other factors to consider:  Mercer has gone from a
>Celtic-friendly agent and also severed ties with another Pitino 
>compadre.  The C's are stuck with Walker because of base-salary 
>compensation issues, so you can't deal him easily.  Pierce is on the 
>cheap for the next four years, so you don't want to  trade him.  If 
>they re-sign Mercer, they may have difficult dealing him in the future 
>because of the same base salary compensation issues that are 
>affecting Walker.

If I were a Celtic, I'd want a financial advisor that was independant from the team, too.  That just seems like a smart business move to me.  The Master P thing, I'm not so sure about.  Is he in over his head?  All this talk about trying to get tryouts for himself, and thinking that Mercer's worth the maximum, seems to suggest he may be.  But I would hardly call Falk Celtic-friendly.  The guy doesn't do anyone any favors except himself, and if any Celtic wants to dump him as their agent, it's fine by me.  Given Pitino's obvious love for Mercer and the fact that no other team can talk to Ron for another year, I expect Ron to sign with the C's this summer.

Face it, Ray.  The days of panic trading are over.  The Cs have a lot of good young talent.  There is no need to go nuts trading half of the team.  The end of the season is telling Pitino that this team can play the way he wants, and will beat enough teams to make the playoffs, when they get a chance to practice the way he wants.  I would think the only question mark he would have left is Anderson.  But even there, I don't think he'll make a trade, unless it's really impossible to turn down.  Before the season started, Rick assumed that PG was pretty much set.  He spent all his energy looking for cheap big men.  It will probably be the reverse this summer, with Rick looking for people to come in and give Kenny a reason to fear for his job.

What a huge letdown this whole season has been.  The team is finally playing the way we were used to seeing them play last year, and there's only a week left.  What a tease!  What have we had, about 2 weeks of this in the last 12 months?  And the excitement isn't there because the playoffs are out of reach.  God I wish they had settled that lockout in December, and had real training camps.  A trip to the playoffs would have been nice this year, and would have helped the team (not to mention the fans) so much....

Jim

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