Pitinospeak

[Michael Gooen <callmebogie@yahoo.com>]

How can anyone take Pitino's mutterings about Mercer and Battie
seriously?  Perhaps no one remembers last year when Pitino was wringing
his hands over Walker's anticipated contractual demands -- and then
gleefully signed him to the maximum deal as soon as he could. 

Someone suggested that there aren't many teams that have multiple
high-salaried players.  That's simply not true.  Forget about the
obvious big-market (NY, LA) and multi-billionaire owned (Portland)
examples.  How about Cleveland?  Shawn Kemp got one of the last $100M
contracts.  Ilgauskas got the same $71M as Antoine.  I believe Person
got $43M over 6 years and Sura got $35M over 5.  And Brevin Knight and
Derek Anderson are eligible for extensions this summer -- don't tell me
Cleveland will be forced to dump them.  

I believe all this budgetary talk is pure posturing.  In this day and
age, you can't build a contender on the cheap.  The key, as I pray
Pitino has realized, is to extend players who have upside as Celtics,
trade value, or both (thus, no more Greg Minor, Dana Barros or Kenny
Anderson contracts).  On that score there should be no problem giving
Mercer something comparable to the contracts Kerry Kittles and Allan
Houston got (say, $50M over 7 years) and giving Battie somewhat less
than Potapenko (say, $30M over 5 years).  If Pitino's not entirely sure
where Mercer and Battie fit in (something I can understand, given the
apparent inability of the Medium Three to coexist on the floor and
Battie's inconsistency), why sign them now?   Even next summer, the C's
will still be able to offer more than any other team.  Heck, it's
probably a better than 50-50 chance that the Clippers get something for
Lorenzen Wright in a sign-and-trade (maybe Kenny and Popeye?). 

Let's just see what happens this summer.

Michael Gooen
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