Here's an update on Walker from this morning's Boston Herald. It looks like the Celtics are pursuing Brian Scalabrine and may not fight to keep Walker. LAS VEGAS - Teams cannot sign free agents until July 22. For now, it's open season on negotiating - and recruiting and posturing and lying. According to several sources, the Celtics are doing more than their part to raise revenue for cell phone companies. The latest word is that New Jersey free agent forward Brian Scalabrine is among those to whom the Celts are speaking. Point guard Wil Solomon, a Clemson product who played last season in Turkey, is also being evaluated. ``I can't comment on anyone specifically,'' Danny Ainge said yesterday. ``We're checking. I'm making some inquiries. I'm looking at a lot of guys.'' He's still looking at Antoine Walker, but so are Houston, New York and Philadelphia, among others. It doesn't seem as though the Celtics are in hot pursuit. ``I've been in contact with Mark Bartelstein,'' Ainge said of talks with Walker's agent. ``That's all I'll say. There's a lot of things I'm trying to do. Antoine's checking all his options, and we're checking all ours.'' Asked if he believed Walker would check back with the Celts after seeing what else is out there, Ainge said no such arrangement exists. ``They don't owe that to us,'' he said. ``I really don't know what Antoine's plans are right now.''
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune...olumn?coll=cs-home-utility&ctrack=1&cset=true Another rumor from tribune is: Word on street: Informal discussions have taken place between the Celtics and Bulls regarding a sign-and-trade deal involving Mt. Carmel alum Antoine Walker and the Bulls' Antonio Davis. … A free basketball clinic will be hosted by Walker at Bremen High School in Midlothian next week for youngsters in the 2nd through 8th grades. … Andrew Stroth, a prominent Chicago sports and entertainment attorney, has joined CSMG Sports, Inc., as senior vice president of player marketing. Stroth was former president and founder of Impact Talent Associates
It’s not that simple as a player and coach telling another player to “do this and don’t do this”, and the player will follow those instructions perfectly. Antoine Walker could come here with the perfect attitude, willing to be the 3rd option, and willing to always defer and it still might not change a thing. Yao would still defer to him. When Steve Francis and JVG were here, they both constantly urged Yao to be more aggressive and more assertive. Yet, there were still so many situations where Yao would defer to Francis just because it’s been mentally engraved in his brain since childhood to not be selfish and to always to defer to players that have seniority or are more proven than him. Bring in a player that is clearly inferior to Yao offensively, like Simmons or Daniels, and he’s much less likely to defer to these players. Bring in players that are more proven than Yao or have had similar or better offensive numbers than him for their careers (SAR and Walker), and there’s likely to be a situation where these players would be unintentionally stunting Yao’s growth. Yao would use SAR and Walker as a crutch. On those nights when Yao gets of to a rough start and misses his first couple of field goal attempts, he’ll just stop shooting because he knows we still have Walker or SAR. He’ll think “I’m off tonight and I don’t want to hurt my team, so I’ll just let SAR/Walker be the second option”.
Walker for the MLE I'm considering. Walker in a sign-and-trade seems like a terrible idea. It means we pay a salary greater than his worth and give up other talent on the team to do it.
Wouldn't that be one of the points of bringing in Walker or SAR? So that when T-Mac or Yao is having an off night, our PF can pick up the scoring load? You keep saying that we don't want Walker because he'd shoot us out of the game, and yet you'd have no problem with Yao shooting us out of a game when he's having a bad night? We need a third scorer. And when I say third scorer, I mean third player who can consistently score. Walker can bring that, as well as rebounding and playmaking.
We do need a 3rd scorer and there are plenty of 3rd scorers out there that would cause so much fewer potential problems. When Yao is struggling, the Rockets don’t want him to stop shooting the ball. That’s exactly what people have been complaining about since his rookie season. They have been screaming at him to keep shooting the ball and keep being aggressive, because eventually he’ll find his touch and he’ll dominate. You want your big man that makes 55% of his shots to keep shooting the ball even when he’s struggling. Not your 42% shooter (Walker) too keep shooting when he’s struggling. I’d rather have Yao averaging 20-22 points a game and our 3rd option averaging 13-15 points than Yao averaging 16-18 and Walker/SAR averaging 16-18. A +20ppg player has a much bigger impact on the game than two +16ppg players.
i watched walker play an entire season with the mavs and i can tell you he has a hard enough time hitting a free throw, let alone expecting him to be able to hit a consistent jumper. he's the only player ive ever seen get rejected by the rim when going for a dunk. he's slow, he can't move, he doesn't defend, and he'll shoot up a terrible shot at the worst possible moment. he is just aweful. terrible. if you had walker during last years playoffs, chances are he ends up guarding dirk instead of mcgrady which is a good thing all around for the mavericks. dirk had no answer for mcgrady when he was being guarded by tmac and he routinely abuses walker on offense. he is too inefficient offensively and he always overrates himself that i dont think he fits into the team concept of the rockets. that being said, sign him if you want to see the second coming of an unathletic, slow, dim witted steve francis in a power forwards body.
Sacramento's in the game for Walker too. They have expiring contracts in Ostertag and Bobby Jackson. http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13209257p-14052216c.html Kings talk to Walker's agent about sign-trade By Martin McNeal -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, July 10, 2005 The Kings apparently have decided to try to upgrade their power-forward position and have discussed a sign-and-trade deal with free-agent forward Antoine Walker's agent. Walker, who will turn 29 on Aug. 12, played for the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics last season , averaging 19.1 points and nine rebounds. Walker has career averages of 19.8 points and 8.7 rebounds and is a versatile player also capable of passing the ball and fitting into the Kings' offense. Agent Mark Bartelstein called the 6-foot-10 Walker one of the league's top 20 players. That's arguable, but Boston improved dramatically in the season's second half after reacquiring Walker. "I spoke with (Kings president of basketball operations) Geoff (Petrie) and explored some sign-and-trade possibilities," said the Chicago-based Bartelstein, who played a role in the sign-and-trade, three-team deal that brought Brad Miller to the Kings in July 2003. "I'll throw out a couple of ideas and try to get the teams talking. I did that in the Miller deal." It's not known whom the Kings would send to Boston. Walker has been criticized for a quick trigger on three-pointers, but he would bring a sorely needed ability to score in the low post and rebound defensively.
Kings fans aren't taking this seriously, however. Petrie is apparently not known to let potential trades leak out unless they're already dead-in-the-water. This appears to be Bartelstein trying to make stuff happen. Hold your ground, CD. Don't let an agent talk you into overpaying.
You're exactly right, however, SAR or Walker won't be stunting Yao's growth, Yao will be stunting Yao's growth. Until he learns to stay out of foul trouble, improve his conditioning and demand the ball more, he will not reach his full potential. Until then, he'll have trouble being a 20-10 guy. Yao using those guys as a crutch isn't there fault, it's Yao's fault. The reason this team needs a 3rd scoring option is because of his inability to consistently play 35-38 minutes a game and demand the ball. If the rox had aquired Bobby Simmons or Cuttino Mobley, Yao would be deferring to them as well. Yao has to take the initiative on this, regardless of who the rockets do or don't aquire.
After giving this much thought, I'm coming down HARD on the side of those opposed to Walker. The nickname I've betowed on Walker is An-tween . That's because he's 'tween PF and SF, 'tween a sloth and Steve Francis, and 'tween an NBA Player and an NBA nightmare....and the last thing I want is for Walker to come 'tween us and an NBA Title Run!!! For those who are slamming Cat, this is mostly guilt by association (Francis). I think Cat's anger at being traded was justified. His b-ball I.Q. is plenty high enough to have realized he was going from one of the most respected team's in the league to an organization whose future was questionable at best. And also, remember that Cat was the KEY acquisition for Sacramento to bolster their offense after trading Webber. It worked too, they just didn't have enough total team "D" to offset Seattle's three perimeter shooters. Cat is an all round better player than "An-tween" and will vastly improve our ability to defend on the perimeter, which (unless you weren't paying close attention) is the most obvious reason we lost to Dallas. Yes we could have used more offense at key points when T-Mac was worn down, or when Yao was in foul trouble, and think how nice it would have been to have Cat and M-James wreaking havoc on the Mavericks backcourt. Cat takes it personally when someone like Stackhouse thinks he can take advantage of him. Imagine Cat on Stack, MJ guarding Jason Terry and T-mac on Dirk...the Mavs would have been lucky to average 90 per game...And yes, Cat comes with some baggage and some attitude, but there's no such thing as too much passion on the floor. I never thought I'd say this, but I would MUCH rather sign SS to the PF slot than An-tween. And if we do make that our MLE deal, then we'll have an immediate need to make up for a lack of offense in the backcourt with a S&T for someone like A.D. One last thing... if this is just a matter of bruised egos between Cat and JVG, I say get over it and sign the guy. We're a LOT closer to vying for a championship than Denver and Cat will get us a lot closer than anyone on the F.A. market accept for SAR.
No. Unless the small forward he's matched up against is a tweener like Al Harrington. Yes, absolutely.
You mean (assuming JVG & CD are still interested) you don't understand why a UFA like AW would rather do a SnT and not just accept the Rockets' MLE? My advice is to get used to it.
'Toine does not suck. We would never be allowed to hang out around the three point line under JVG, so he would be in the post and sharing rebounds, which he really does do well when he is focused on those things. As far as Cat being a one dimensional player, that's just not true. Sure, he was one dimensional FOR THE KINGS as a bench player whose job was to score and score and score, but Cat can play lock-down perimeter defense, shoot the ball and get to the rack. I just don't see any merit to your position.
I've said it before, I'll say it now: Antoine Walker is the source of all evil in the universe. A player who has (a) no discipline and (b) doesn't play defense won't magically acquire these properties by being on a team coached by JVG. Some things...you can't teach. One is talent (which Walker also has), but those are two others.
