The Tale of Two Franchises (LA and Boston) - Part II

In the '94 off-season, Jerry West made four moves, three of which were controversial. First, he drafted Eddie Jones with the #10 pick. Second, he traded the Lakers '95 first round pick to Phoenix for Cedric Ceballos. Ceballos was a talented headcase, an "all-O, no D" player who had flourished briefly in Phoenix but had ended the season on the bench. Most analysts thought Phoenix stole the Lakers blind, getting a probable lottery draft pick for a headcase bench player. Third, he hired Del Harris as head coach. Harris had less than memorable runs as coach in Houston and Milwaukee and his best team in 9 seasons had a 49-33 record. Fans wondered, "Del who?", but Harris was the only person West interviewed for the job. Lastly, West traded Doug Christie to New York for two future second-round draft considerations, essentially giving up on Christie after a season and a half. Christie would eventually thrive in Toronto and Sacramento.

While the Lakers were making a few moves, Boston was making lots of moves. The Celtics had M. L. Carr took over GM duties from Red Auerbach. Boston drafted Eric Montross with the #9 pick. Montross had been highly touted at UNC, but never put up the stats a big seven footer should have in the NCAA. Robert Parrish, the last link to the '86 world champion team, left as a free agent. Boston signed SF Dominique Wilkins (35), PF Pervis Ellision (27), SF Greg Minor (23) and SG David Wesley (24). Boston also traded PF Ed Pickney, a long time bench player, and the rights to their second round pick, Andrei Fetisov, to Milwaukee for undersized PF Derek Strong and SG Blue Edwards.

West's moves worked brilliantly as the Lakers posted a 48-34 record, won their first round series over Seattle 3-1, then took heavily favored San Antonio to 6 games. Eddie Jones was named to the All-Rookie First Team. Ceballos had an All-Star season and his defensive deficiencies were covered by Jones defensive prowess in front of him and two shot blockers in Campbell and Divac behind him. Harris did a great job of installing an up-tempo offensive that suited his players, of teaching the young Lakers how to practice and play focused, and of getting difficult personalities to play team ball. The Lakers were now a very young team with their top 6 players - Van Exel (23), Jones (23), Ceballos (25), Campbell (26), Divac (26) and Peeler (25) - all in their early 20's. In three years, West had completely rebuilt the team and they looked ready to compete for the division championship for years to come.

For Boston, Douglas and Brown had productive seasons, particularly in the second half. But the rest of the team's young talent had problems - Acie Earl, last year's #19 pick, played only 208 minutes all season; Dino Radja's injuries would limit him to only 66 games; Rick Fox couldn't get minutes behind Wilkins; and Montross continued to put up disappointing stats for a player of his size. Meanwhile, the veteran free agents were in serious decline - Wilkins, who had a career scoring average of 26.5 ppg coming into the season, posted his lowest scoring numbers to date and shot only 42.4% (but managed to lead the team in scoring); Xavier McDaniel, third highest paid player on the squad, was down to 21 mpg; and Ellision had severe injury problems that limited him to only 55 games and less than 20 mpg. The Celtics made a minor deal at the trading deadline, sending little-used Blue Edwards to Philadelphia for a '95 second round draft pick. The Celtics went on a season-ending tear to grab the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a 35-47 record, then lost to Orlando in four games in the first round of the playoffs.

The Lakers only made minor roster moves in the '95 off-season. They didn't have a first round pick and drafted Frankie King with the #37 pick. They signed free agent Derek Strong from Boston and got PF/C Corie Blount from Chicago for cash.

Boston had a far more active off-season. They drafted SF Eric Williams with the #14 pick and Junior Burrough with the #33 pick. They signed free agent PG Dana Barros to big, long contract that made him the highest paid Celtic. Barros was a 5'11", 28 year old guard who had an All-Star year the prior year on a terrible Philadelphia team, but an otherwise mediocre career. Signing Barros meant that the three highest paid Celtics were backcourt players and were 5'11" (Barros), 6'0" (Douglas) and 6'1" (Brown). The C's lost three players to free agency - Wilkins to Greece, McDaniel to Europe and Strong to the Lakers. Acie Earl went to Toronto in the expansion draft. M. L. Carr fired Chris Ford and took over the coaching duties.

On the court, the Lakers picked up where they left off in the '94-'95 season. Magic Johnson, 36, came out of retirement to join the team for the last 32 games of the season. The club ended up with a 53-29 record, 4th in the Western Conference, but lost to Houston 3-1 in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers never fully integrated Magic Johnson into the team, which isn't surprising given how few games he played with them. Magic Johnson retired at the end of the season amid many ugly recriminations. The Lakers had enough talent to do well during the regular season, but not enough to compete for the conference finals or the NBA finals. Something extraordinary would have to be done for the Lakers to be able reach that level.

Boston suffered through yet another losing season, continuing their steady decline. 10 games into the season, Boston tried to rebalanced their roster by trading their PG Douglas to Milwaukee for SG Todd Day and C Alton Lister. The Celtics continued to not have nearly enough healthy big men. Radja was the C's best player, but was injury prone and suffered a season-ending ankle sprain after 53 games. Fox and Wesley had breakthrough seasons and Greg Minor played surprisingly well for a free agent pick up However, Montross underperformed, Brown had an awful season (less than 40% shooting), Todd Day had a worse (37.1% shooting), Barros didn't play up to his new contract and Ellison continued to be a bust. The Celtics wound up 33-49 and missed the playoffs.

Lessons to be learned on rebuilding
DON'T churn the roster
The Lakers and Boston both ended up with two players on their roster at the end of the '95-'96 season that were on the roster at the start of the '92-'93 season (Campbell/Divac and Brown/Fox). But the the Lakers made far fewer roster changes than Boston, only once trading a starter, only once trading for a starter, only once making an in-season trade and not once signing any significant free agents. The biggest roster change was after the '92-'93 season, when starters Scott and Green left through free agency. Boston, on the other hand, signed major veteran free agents three of the four off-seasons and made in-season trades in four of the five seasons. Young players learn how to play in the NBA mainly on the job. The Lakers provided a stable environment for theirs to do so and Boston didn't.

DO get value from your draft picks while rebuilding
The draft is the best way to get young, cheap talent on your team. Every pick doesn't have to be a starter, but each first round pick should be someone who provides value to the team. Of the Lakers top 7 (in terms of minutes) in the '95-'96 season, 5 were drafted by the Lakers and one was a young player acquired by using a draft pick. Boston, on the other hand, drafted only 3 of their top 7. Of Boston's four first round picks during this time, Jon Barry was traded away for a worthless player, Acie Earl was a bust, Eric Montross was a bust and Eric Williams would eventually be traded away for two second round draft picks.

DON'T sign veteran free agents while rebuilding
All of the veteran free agents signed by Boston - Xavier McDaniel, Dominique Wilkins, Pervis Ellision and Dana Barros - weren't worth the money they were paid. Boston would have been much smarter if they gave those minutes to younger players who might have still been around when the team was ready to compete again. Young free agents Welsey and Minor were good pick ups for the Celtics.

DO gamble on talent with attitude problems
Elden Campbell had talent, but never had much fire. Anthony Peeler was consider a risk because of a rape charge. Nick Van Exel had talent, but even more of an attitude. Ceballos had talent, but was a head case. The Lakers were able to overcome their attitude problems to make value of their talent. Given how few opportunities a team has at getting talent, they have to gamble if they want to succeed. It doesn't always turn out well - the Lakers weren't able to turn around Christie's attitude and eventually Campbell, Ceballos and Van Exel will be traded away. But they provided far more value than George Lynch, who had a great attitude but no talent.

Young bigs are hard to get
One thing that made the Lakers' rebuilding easier is that they already had their C and PF of the future on their roster (Divac and Campbell) when they started rebuilding. Boston had Joe Kleine and Ed Pinckney on their roster, who would never be confused with C's and PF's of the future. Boston wasted two of their picks trying to draft a big. It's my guess that most wasted draft picks are wasted on bigs. Montross was a bust, but so were the other bigs in that draft - Carlos Rogers, Yinka Dare and Clifford Rozier.


Posted here at LG.net