The negativity about this trade ....

After reading this articlehttp://insider.espn.go.com/insider/story?id=1642930&CMP=ILC-INHEAD It got me wondering, why does no one like this trade for the celtics? All of a sudden people are fallign in love with Walker again? The guy coudl score easily on the block against a large percentage fot he men who guard him, yet he takes the guy outside and shoots, what, 20% from 3-point land? This is a guy who has left Boston fasn wanting more ever since he came into the league. We have been waiting and waiting for him to mature into the player we could build around.

That never happened.

Then Paul Pierce came around and sealed Walker's fate. Pierce is now The Man in Boston. Hey, after you survive being stabbed 900(or so) times, you deserve to be The Man. Paul has already showed more maturity than one ever saw in Walker. No examples, I don't like to do my own research.

We have been waiting for this year to trade walker and get ANYONE out of the deal. To get a big man who can actually block some shots(he did well when playing in Denver) and then go out side and shoot (Again, see Denver, the last time he truly played), well that is a great deal in my book. Don't even get me started on the fact we got a promising young(1 year) guard in Jiri Welsch who can stroke the 3 with the best of them. Now you have a great young backcourt tandem (Welsch and 1st round pick Banks) to go with your superstar, Paul Pierce. Up in the front court, you ahve a guy who can play center for you (LaFrentz) who now has a shot at the all-star team(who doesn't in the East at center?), alongside the guy who was going to start, Battie, and Vin Baker, who may be back in some form to contribute. Add that to opening time at the power forward spot (the misnomer of Antoine's former position) for the 3 aforementioned and fellow draft pick Kendrick Perkins, you ahve room to develop a player who would've been stuffed behind Battie and Baker at center, with no hope fo displacing Walker for minutes at the 4.


I say this is a good deal for EVERYONE involved. Delk and Walker go to a good team to contribute, LaFrentz gets out of a town that didn't want him and Jiri gets a chance to prove himself(which he probably would not have had in Dallas).


I applaude Cuban and Ainge.
- posted by Doug @ 11:56:00 AM