Big NBA trade. Celtics ship Antoine Walker and Tony Delk to Dallas for Raef LaFrentz, Chris Mills and Jiri Welsch. How desperate must the Celtics have been to get rid of Walker to take this little for him? I always thought he was way overrated and he hated playing second fiddle to Paul Pierce. How on earth is going to deal with being the 4th option?

Antoine Sent Walkering

What a horrible day this is for the Celtics!!!!!!! DAMMIT!!!!!!! I understand that the people feel that Pierce is the real scoring force on this team, but in terms of LEADERSHIP, it is Walker who leads this team. He's the one who will get in his teammates face and be the leader when someone needs to step up. If you remember when they had that 21 point 4th period come back in the playoffs, that was because Walker stepped up as a leader and got the team in check. I'm not saying that he does everything, but I am saying that he is pivotal to the stabilization of the team chemistry. Mr Ainge is just getting rid of people he doesn't like. If anyone can explain to me how this will make my team better I am all ears. What an awful, Awful, AWFUL decision as a GM. Those scrubs for one of your two franchise players!!! That was just BRILLIANT!!!!

Da Kid.

P.S.> This could not have come at a better time, seeing as how Boston fans are still reeling after the Red Sox lost. I say they get rid of Little and Ainge. NOW!!! Go Marlins (yes, that's right I just jumped on the Marlins bandwagon)!!!

I too find Walker a tad overrated and being the numero uno Mavericks fan here, I can't say I'm all that excited about him but sure am glad to get rid of the overpaid, underachieving Raef Lafrenz. I think Nellie's going to finally be able to get Nash's and Nowitzki's minutes down and keep their legs fresh with the supporting talent we have now.

The West continues to get stronger as the East idly sits by.

Interesting. I never thought Walker was overrated, because I never thought anybody who knew anything about basketball rated him all that high. LaFrentz, on the other hand, is overrated in the sense that he's in a 5-year $69 million contract--and he's no $69 million player.

How will the Dallas All Stars distribute the shots? Nowitski, Nash, Finley, Jamison and Walker--the guy who never met a 3-point shot he didn't like.

For Boston, LaFrentz, Mills and Welsh are not going to be able to replace the scoring of Walker and Delk. Paul Pierce can't do everything.

I have the strange feeling that Paul Pierce's first reaction to this trade was: MORE SHOTS FOR ME!!!!!

~Adam

i dont understand why the Mavs made this trade at all. im sure Pierce is very happy!! I think Walker is vastly overrated and not sure how in the hell he will fit in with the Mavs at all. ive been shaking my head all day on this one

Reason enough for me is that they're dumping the hefty contract of Lafrenz.

I think this trade is a good one for the Mavs because it gives them another scoring threat. The Mavs are gonna be even more difficult to defend than they were last year. You cannot have enough weapons in playing in the Western Conference.

I agree that the dumping of LaFrentz's criminally overinflated contract is great for Dallas. But did the Mavs need another small forward type? They need somebody, anybody to play defense and hang physically with Shaq and Duncan and eventually Yao Ming.

But if you think of the good teams of recent years, they were not the ones with 4, 5, 6 big scorers. They were teams with 1 or 2 big scorers, and strong supporting players.

The Shaq & Kobe Lakers, Tim Duncan's Spurs... both teams have plenty of mediocre players, yet managed to go all the way.

The Michael Jordan (and Scottie Pippen) Bulls... helped by one-dimensional players like Dennis Rodman and Steve Kerr.

That's why I think the stacked Lakers (Shaq, Kobe, Malone, Payton) and Mavs (Nowitski, Nash, Finley, Jamison, Walker) may have problems... they can't all get 20+ shots and score 20+ points.

Who among the young guns on the Mavs will pass up a shot for another guy? And who will defend?

[ October 20, 2003, 07:02 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

This is a wierd trade....there must be something else that is going to happen!

Dallas has got to have some plans for a trade in the future!

I'm thinking....Artest for Dirk! WOOHOO!!

Welsh is a very, very HOT prospect. This reminds me of when the Pacers stole another European from the Mavs, that nobody heard of...who turned into an all-star...Detlef Shrempf.

I wouldn't be crying the blues...it was obvious Walker/Pierce wasn't working. Short term you may lose, getting rid of Walkers ridiculous salary, and getting 2 starters in return wasn't a bad move.

You'll be thanking this deal a few years down the road...yet it still doesn't solve the pt. guard problem there, unless Banks ends up being a solid draftee.

That's a head scratcher on both points for me but I really have a problem with a power forward who averages 40 minutes a game and less than 10 boards a game. To me that speaks volumes to a player's unwillingness to do the little things a team needs to win. Raef, while overpaid, was never afraid to mix it up. That kind of toughness will help him post All-Star caliber numbers in the center-depleted east, provided he's able to stay out of foul trouble. Also keep in mind, no one wanted to take Toine off of Ainge's hands.