I found it interesting that Fuji’s latest post talks about a favorite player leaving their team. Granted, his situation involves a trade, but whether by trade or free agency, it always sucks when one of your favorite players leaves your favorite team. This time there’s even more time to fret because the impending lockout could keep free agents from signing with new teams for a long time to come. Given how numerous and severe the current problems with the NBA are, I wouldn’t be surprised if we lost a whole season to the lockout.
The free agent thing I went through just two years ago. Glen Davis was a free agent after a great showing in the playoffs, tested the free agent waters, didn’t get a single offer and re-signed with the Celtics. This year, Davis started the season as a strong contended for the 6th Man Award, but as the season wore on he slowly disappeared, took fewer charges and had a much smaller impact on games when he came off of the bench. He was all but nonexistent in the playoffs and talked about not being mentally strong while Doc Rivers talked about Davis getting more selfish and not playing “his game.” It makes you think that Big Baby won’t be wearing Celtic Green the next time an NBA Season tips off unless they can get him for a huge discount. I don’t see that happening with plenty of teams out there having both salary cap room and the need for role players.
If Davis were to leave the Celtics, I’m not sure if I would continue collecting him or not. I’d have to say that his poor play late last season made him a lot less fun to watch. That was the main thing that drew me to him as a player. David would check into a game, take a charge, hit a big basket or two and bring some energy into the game. Once he started doing nothing but shoot jumpers at a below average rate, he wasn’t any fun to watch. He’s got to be that guy who cuts to the basket, rolls off of picks and fights for those tough rebounds.
If the Celtics were to let Davis walk, I would love to see Danny Ainge do whatever he could to bring Ryan Gomes back to Boston. Gomes is a player who I collected while he was here, but stopped collecting once he was traded away. Gomes is the veteran, mature version of Big Baby. He can score, but doesn’t look for his shot. He gets his points within the flow of the game. He’s got basketball smarts, always seems to be around the ball and is the type of player that you need coming off of the bench on championship teams.
Best case scenario would see Ainge bring back a different former Celtic, Al Jefferson. The Celtics don’t currently have a center, have a bunch of expiring contracts and need another star to play with Rondo once Pierce, Allen and Garnett decide to hang it up. Big Al would be the perfect choice. I wouldn’t mind shipping Garnett out to Utah in order to bring Jefferson back. I don’t think that a deal such as that one is very likely though.
Big Baby or no Big Baby in Boston what I really want is basketball in Boston. It would be a shame if a season were to be lost, but unlike the NFL where owners are trying to make sure that they get more money from a league that’s flourishing, NBA owners are trying to make changes to keep their franchises from losing money. It doesn’t look good for the NBA at the moment.
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