Here's my worry about Davis.
He definitely has stepped it up lately.
He's always been most impressive just before he is due for a contract, i.e. leading up to the draft and now approaching his first free agency period.
His production as a bench player has always been putrid.
His best production has always been as a starter.
However, if he's your starter, then he's a liability at that position.
Basically, he's a paradox. He plays his best when he's starting, but if he's starting that means you are giving up a lot at the PF position. If we could get his equivalent production as a starter when he was coming off the bench, that would be great; but he has repeatedly shown that when he comes off the bench he stinks.
Does that make sense? He's shown that he needs to start and get big minutes to approach effective production, but he's really not good enough to be your PF starter for a truly good team. If he could play this well coming off the bench for a truly good team that would be great; he's shown though that off the bench he stinks. He's stuck in a no man's land.
for the right piece, I would love to package scal, tony, possibly eddie's expiring contracts with Davis in a sign and trade for one very good player making 10-13 million.
He has been on a contract year 2 out of the last three years. And even in his rookie season he played quite ok in a championship caliber team. I dont buy the idea he is playing great just for the contract.
Also, asking him to score 16points per game in 20/25 minutes is a bit too much. His play off production has been as good as anyone.
And finally, even if he is a back up his entire career I wouldnt mind giving 4 million a yearto the first big from the bench. Basically, it is what Scal has been earning for much less.
it's a little too much, but not by much. You need your backup PF to be one of three things: a scorer, a rebounder, a defender. Davis is really quite a below average rebounder, and an average defender. so he'd better be a scorer. 16 points and 5.8 rebounds in 37 minutes as a power forward starter in the playoffs is really not that good. If he's going to be a backup, he'd better get better at something, so he can be a 12 and 4 or an 8 and 8 guy in his 20-25 minutes...right now he's about a 8 and 4 guy in backup minutes.
And my qualms with him coming off the bench are that he's been incredibly below average when getting bench minutes and he's needed 37 minutes per game to get production that approaches, but is still less than, good starter on a playoff team.
So really, no, Davis hasn't been as good as any other starting PF in the playoffs.
