DON'T FORGET THE BARREIRO PERSONALITY PAGE, KEYWORD: BARREIRO OR BUMP
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS _ You'll notice that the last Wolves-Celtics rumor has already morphed into the Wolves-Suns rumor, then the Wolves-Suns-Celtics-Pacers rumor and now the Wolves-Suns-Celtics rumor, in which people with way too much time get out a calculator and decide to make deals for teams, whether those teams' general managers are interested in those deals or not. It's also about the whispers that Wolves office personnel hear in the halls, which sometimes is good info, sometimes complete nonsense. I've heard my fair share of rumors from office personnel, and they're right about 10 percent of the time.
The biggest problem here, with those who believe a projected and possibly fictitious Celtics deal is too good to pass up, is that it assumes the deal is available, and it assums that it is the best deal obtainable.
As long as Kevin McHale is in charge, I'll never trust that assumption. And that's why I'm not as ready to be as giddy about this deal as many others (who, by the way, were almost as giddy with the last Celtics deal, but refuse to acknowledge as much now).
Yes, we all know many teams are out of the mix because of salary cap issues and contracts _ this does not exactly qualify as rocket science _ but creative GMs find ways to involve a third team, and draft choices, and future considerations, etc. The other fear, last expressed on air when the Wolves dealt with the Celtics the last time, is the inherent danger in acquiring players, even promising ones, from bad teams. Or, to put it another way, when one bad GM deals with another bad GM. It's an important cautionary tale _ don't say some of us didn't warn you when the last Celtics deal went down _ which doesn't mean you never deal with that bad team twice, but should make anyone think long and hard before dealing off your only real asset. You only get the chance to do that once, if you are going to do it at all.
