Wally Is Not An Albatross

“By the way, Szczerbiak’s contract, though hefty, is not the albatross that it is made out to be.”

“He played in only 32 games this season before undergoing season-ending ankle surgery, and clubs will need to trust in his ability to remain healthy if they are to assume such a steep contract.”

How does the writer not understand how unmoveable Wally is when he states the reason why he has no trade value? lol

He’s not just an albatross, he’s a dead albatross. He barely had enough athleticism to play in the NBA when he was young and healthy.

Hes a stiff with a bad knee and two bad ankles. And a huge contract.

Doesnt sound like a very tradable commodity.

I don’t think anyone would argue that Wally is an above average shooter. But he’s got a long history of injury, is a defensive liability, and he’s getting paid ALOT of money.

The Celts have plenty of offense. They lack defense and Wally can’t help them there.

Wally was a consistent 19 PPG scorer at his best. More importantly he is a true professional shooter, something very rare in this day and age. I don’t know if he will come back from his injury or not. No one does and clearly you can’t play on one leg. But if he does come back Brick, I would take Wally over any high flying “athletic” I watched Sports Center all my life and only know how to dunk NBA knucklehead any day. Wally has got skillsand there is a place on any basketball team for a guy of his size who can shoot like that.

Wally doesn’t play defense, doesn’t rebound, and doesn’t create shots for others. He’s a one-dimensional player who’s probably making three times what he’s worth. Whoever wrote that for ESPN is probably watching old Wally video from his college career.

Wally averaged 7 rebounds per game in Minnisota. He can rebound. He also is an average defensive player when healthy. He is not a stopper but not the liability he is made out to be. The guy has just been hurt since he got here. I don’t thnk anybody on this board ever saw Wally play in Minnisota when he was healthy. Yeah, Ainge deserves a hit for taking, for the second time, what appears to be damaged goods. But, the whole “Wally never could play and always stunk in the pros” is just stupid and ignorant and in no way representative of the facts.

I do hope Wally can make contributions again; if you go to the games, get there early and watch him warm up; very business like approach working on each of his shots with a series of 3 repetitions.
Maybe coach should have Gerald follow him around. that is the kind of veteran leadership that is needed on this team.
We haven’t seen him healthy as yet and he was still able to put points on the board by just being tough; his turn-in with elbows to the face of a agressive defender to create spacing for a shot is an example of tough and well needed example for a “soft” team.

JohnK, when exactly did Wally average 7 rebounds per game in Minnesota? Im looking at his stats right now, and the highest per game average of his career was 5.5 in the second season of his career…which is still pretty mediocre for a 6’8 SF.

Even when healthy and during his good years, Wally has never been a consistent player. No one can deny that the guy is a smart scorer, and when hes on he is as good a scorer as anyone…but outside of putting the ball in the hoop (which is most certainly a valuable skill), Wally provides very little to contribute to a team. He is a one dimensional player, and an injured one at that.

Jeff, you failed to mention his inability to defend.

At least Wally is one-dimensional player, the problem of this celtics is that we have a lot of no-dimensional players such as Bassy, Kandi, Perkins…
Its strange to me that being a team full of offensive weapons, we score less than 100 points.

i like wally, warts and all. he is one dimensional, but so is perk. a smart coach can get a lot out of him by using him against zones, for scoring pick me ups, and exploiting matchups. he has been hurt and while not even close to bird has some of bird’s smarts to use on defense.

Barely athletic enough to play in the league, and yet an NBA All Star. I watched him play in MN (lived there for 4 yrs while he was there) and his athleticism is VERY underrated by people here. Then again, I’ve seen him play in Boston and understand why people have that misconception. You are right that he can’t create his own shot against a premier defender, but he will eat up small guys and is a great #3 scoring option (can’t be a #2 option – hands down, no way). He is 10x the athlete that Kapono is, by the way. Maybe 20x. And a conscientious defender, if not a very good one.

The column had it 100% right, by the way. IF, IF, IF! they can keep him healthy, his trade value is actually quite high… in 20 months…

Po,
I find it hard to believe that a coach of your caliber weren’t making $134,000 per game in your coaching gig…if not, you were obviously underpaid. I always though you and Wally had more than your deadeye jumpshots in common.

Wally will play 75 games next season and average 18/4/4. He won’t justify his salary but he’ll be a major contributor.

C’mon, why so desperate about trades… Do we need a veteran? Wally is a veteran! A veteran shooter! We are full of dunkers, and we have a reliable shooter when healthy, i would never trade for any perimeter help, unless it’s a solid PG.

But i do want Wally as a reliable bench producer behind Pierce and Green. He and Tony Allen, what a second unit.

Wallley averaged that in the playoffs not in the regular season. My bad. But, Edwardo is right. Wally is a very good player when healthy. People on here will defend stiffs like Telfair and Kandi who as was stated above are “no dimensional players” but then act like a guy who was an all-star and has averaged 15 PPG in his career has no value.

If Wally would be willing to play 20 minutes coming off the bench, he could definitely be an asset to us. I find that highly unlikely – he seems to be too proud for that. But as a bench player, he’d be highly overpaid, but I think highly effective

^^^ 12 mill a year to play 20 min. a game?? Maybe Theo’s 12mill a year to sit on a bench??? 24 mill down the drain…. priceless danny

Wally is useful player who is overpaid by about $4 to $5M per year. IMO, a team that has a similarly overpaid player or a combination of overpaid assets that run for an additional year … could easily make a trade for him.

Would Cleveland trade Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, and Damon Jones for Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West, and Theo Ratliff? Probably.

Could we package Ratliff and Szczerbiak with Green and West to get Ray Allen, Earl Watson, and Damien Wilkins? Maybe … Watson and Wilkins are overpaid.

Probably could trade Wally and Scalabrine to New York for Steve Francis if we wanted an undersized guard.