| Update On Celtics’ Off-Season Authored by Ryan Bennett - July 4, 2005 - 4:18 am
In the beautiful words of Karen Carpenter, “We’ve only just begun” the off-season, but rumours are aplenty. Rumours of potential Antoine Walker suitors, Gary Payton suitors and Paul Pierce destinations have been in abundance across Internet message boards and chat rooms. One rumour has worldly point god Sarunas Jasikevicius being targeted by the Celtics, if this is true, than Pierce and Walker would seem to be sticking around. Why add a veteran if you are trading away your other veterans?
The Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks seemingly have their eyes fixed to Antoine Walker, to fill their respective power forward vacancies. Everyone new that Isiah Thomas would be after Walker, but Carroll Dawson, who knew? I’ve heard rumours of Paul Pierce to Minnesota, the LA Clippers, Dallas and New York. It will be interesting to see if one of these trades eventuates. According to couple of newspapers, Gary Payton will not be back in Celtic green. Potential teams that will try to acquire Payton have been confirmed as: Miami, Phoenix and Minnesota. Although I can see the Houston Rockets emerging as dark horses for his services.
The Celtics’ off-season will become very clear when we see what happens with Antoine Walker. If Walker is resigned, then we know Pierce won’t be traded. If Boston lets Walker (pardon the pun) walk, then it is safe to say that pierce will be gone too. The Celtics would only have to suffer through about 2 years of losing before these young players really start to develop. I’m looking forward to watching Al Jefferson and Gerald Green teamed together during the summer league.
Contact Ryan at: ryanwbennett@gmail.com |
