Bad Moves by Red
Tom Gross
> By the way Tom, when you talk about Dallas needing a guy like Greg Kite,
> do you do so with a straight face?
> ... I'm as big a Celtics fan as anyone,
> but I recognize a stiff when I see one.
>
Let's just say I have only Boston's interest in mind. I take
it you think such a deal would be good for the Celtics?
> It would take Boston's first-round pick
> (the one they got from Seattle, which will be a top-seven lottery pick)
> to extract Schrempf. The Globe's Bob Ryan has been advocating such a move,
> but I would wait to see what the lottery turns up. If they're in a position
> to grab Len Bias, for example, that's the thing to do. If they draft
> sixth or seventh, I'd trade the pick for Scrempf in a second.
I don't follow college ball enough (or at all) to really comment
(I would be interested in hearing more about this Bias fellow).
In general though I think one has to admire Auerbach's tendency to
trade stiffs like Rick Robey and Gerald Henderson (yes, I think they
are both stiffs, Gerald could at least jump but that's about it).
In a lot of ways I think he is profitting from what I would say was
his WORST deal (one shouldn't blame him for getting Mcadoo), namely
trading Paul Westphal for Charlie Scott, although at the time I thought
it was a great trade. Anyway, what I mean is I think other teams might
be hoping to duplicate Phoenix's good fortune in that trade.
This is actually a possible new topic: blunders Red Auerbach has
made. I WOULD blame Auerbach for getting SIDNEY WICKS (in effect
for Paul Silas. Does anyone remember the details of that deal?).
Picking up Curtis Rowe just compounded the mistake. Come to think
of it I would say getting Wicks was his biggest mistake. I suppose
one could point to any number of 1st round draft picks that didn't
work out. For a number of years it irked me to see Philly pick
up guys like Maurice Cheeks in the second round while the Celts were
picking stiffs who were "coachable and fundamentally sound", like
Greg Kite or Greg Mcdonald.
Indeed, I think Bill Fitch deserves a LOT of credit for the current
Celtics team. According to Fitch (as I recall reading), he takes credit
for coming up with the Parish/Mchale deal.
If the Celtics end up with the 6th or 7th pick I will be VERY interested
to see how they use it. It should tell us something about how they
evaluate talent these days.
Tom Gross
Apollo Computer, Inc.
Chelmsford, MA