Baby is Getting Better and Better!

[SalmonAndMashedPotatoes]

Baby is Getting Better and Better!

This thread is like magic. 

[snively]

Baby's always been at his best playing with Rondo.  His excellent hands, his smarts, his ability to roll or pop: add to these qualities a smoother looking J and you can see why he's looking so much better offensively this year.

The problem is he's still a mediocre rebounder and a limited defender, making high efficiency a necessity to keep his net impact positive.  He's a nice stop-gap while JO, Shaq and Perk marinate, but we're in trouble if he's playing these kind of minutes come playoffs.

[Bahku]

He's an over-achiever and I love the kid! Watching him develop and improve before our eyes is a treat ... he injects energy whenever he comes in, and nobody works harder. Nice to see that he's getting his jump-shot going, too. My favorite bench-warmer without a doubt.

[Bankshot]

Baby's always been at his best playing with Rondo.  His excellent hands, his smarts, his ability to roll or pop: add to these qualities a smoother looking J and you can see why he's looking so much better offensively this year.

The problem is he's still a mediocre rebounder and a limited defender, making high efficiency a necessity to keep his net impact positive.  He's a nice stop-gap while JO, Shaq and Perk marinate, but we're in trouble if he's playing these kind of minutes come playoffs.

I might argue that his presence allows his teammates to get rebounds.  His presence hasn't hurt their rebounding, so my guess is it helps the rebounding.  Just watching last night, watching Rondo and Pierce go skying up for rebounds, giving Glen no chance to grab a rebound. But his blocking out helped.  However, he had 6 rebounds in 24 minutes last night, and that's decent. He has been known for getting key rebounds in the clutch.  That tells me that he'll be the rebounder when they need him to.

[paul]

Baby's always been at his best playing with Rondo.  His excellent hands, his smarts, his ability to roll or pop: add to these qualities a smoother looking J and you can see why he's looking so much better offensively this year.

The problem is he's still a mediocre rebounder and a limited defender, making high efficiency a necessity to keep his net impact positive.  He's a nice stop-gap while JO, Shaq and Perk marinate, but we're in trouble if he's playing these kind of minutes come playoffs.

I might argue that his presence allows his teammates to get rebounds.  His presence hasn't hurt their rebounding, so my guess is it helps the rebounding.  Just watching last night, watching Rondo and Pierce go skying up for rebounds, giving Glen no chance to grab a rebound. But his blocking out helped.  However, he had 6 rebounds in 24 minutes last night, and that's decent. He has been known for getting key rebounds in the clutch.  That tells me that he'll be the rebounder when they need him to.

I love it that someone with Paul Silas under the username would make this point.  Would Dave Cowens have been as effective not playing next to Silas?  Probly not.

Arguably, the most important things don't show up on the stat sheet.  Davis seems to have improved his game and seems more and more to be stepping into a role that has become legendary -  the great Celtics' Sixth Man tradition.  He's starting to feel so reliable that we might be able to begin to ask ourselves who is going to be the next person on the bench that has HIS back?  Nate has been shaky, Marquis has been inconsistent, Jermaine has been injured, West is having problems before he even gets to the game floor...someone has to step up.  Big Baby can't provide push from the bench all by himself.

[thirstyboots18]

Kind of funny how we have posters on here trying to convince us that we are not seeing what we're seeing. lol

Big Baby is playing great and they'll break out all sorts of statistics to tell us our eyes are deceiving us.

It is said that you can't rush maturity.  I am glad Glen Davis is maturing, and that maturity is showing in his play.  He is playing great...can't think of anyone I would rather have coming off the Celtics bench to inject effort and enthusiasm into the game.

That said, I think this thread sometimes seems like a political post.  It should not be "us" against "them".  "We" are all fans of the Boston Celtics.  We are also individuals who are entitled to opinions, even if we don't always agree.  I think the "they say" "we know" mentality is becoming borish. Just my opinion.

[KGs Knee]

I tend to stay away from any threads involving Baby, because it seems to me there are those who love him, and those who love him not so much.  I've noticed, at times, the thread can devolve into personal attacks and arguments, which I really would rather not get into.

That being said, Baby seems to be playing very good so far this season.  I don't have any stats to back this up, I've never found much use for stats, to me they're just numbers.  What I do have however, is a pair of fully functioning eyes.  So far my eyes have been telling me Baby has been easily our best bench player, and is contributing quite a bit to the team.

My two favorite plays last night were the loose ball Baby ran to and then dove for between 3 Knicks players (he got it too!).  The other play was late in the 4th quarter, he had just missed a couple of jump shots, but the next time he got the ball he upfaked the defender and drove to the hoop getting the layup. 

Both of these plays say a lot to me about Baby.  It shows he still is willing to bring energy and hustle, and also shows his offensive game has matured.  To know that you've missed your last couple of jump shots, after having started the night hitting most of them, and realize a simple upfake will get the defender to bite seems to me to be tremendous growth from Baby.

Anyways just my two cents.

[Jon]

First let me say that I like Baby and I'm happy he's on the team and improving. 

However, despite all of his good play, I still wonder what his eventual role will be here. 

Taking talent out of the equation altogether, I'm not sold that these KG/BBD lineups are going to hold up.  Sure, they yield some good spacing offensively and Baby works hard defensively; however, all the hard work doesn't make up for the fact that Baby is too short and unathletic to contest more shots. 

That said, while I think some of these Baby/KG lineups are a product of health (Perk and JO) and fitting in (both O'Neals), I also wonder if this is Danny/Doc showcasing Baby for a potential trade down the road. 

Because despite his progress, I still question whether Danny wants to invest in him long term.  As much as I like what he brings, I don't think he's the starting power forward of our next championship team after the Big Three are gone.  And I'm not so sure Danny is going to lock up valuable salary cap space on our "backup power forward of the future."  And if he's not willing to do that, he may simply want to cash in on Baby while he can still get something for him. 

[makaveli]

I just love Big Baby, he's smart, always active and understands his role, a perfect bench player(will be a great starter after KG is gone) and a true Celtic

[snively]

Baby's always been at his best playing with Rondo.  His excellent hands, his smarts, his ability to roll or pop: add to these qualities a smoother looking J and you can see why he's looking so much better offensively this year.

The problem is he's still a mediocre rebounder and a limited defender, making high efficiency a necessity to keep his net impact positive.  He's a nice stop-gap while JO, Shaq and Perk marinate, but we're in trouble if he's playing these kind of minutes come playoffs.

I might argue that his presence allows his teammates to get rebounds.  His presence hasn't hurt their rebounding, so my guess is it helps the rebounding.  Just watching last night, watching Rondo and Pierce go skying up for rebounds, giving Glen no chance to grab a rebound. But his blocking out helped.  However, he had 6 rebounds in 24 minutes last night, and that's decent. He has been known for getting key rebounds in the clutch.  That tells me that he'll be the rebounder when they need him to.

Baby is a poor defensive rebounder and always has been.  He has an especially hard time coming down with contested rebounds among the trees. 

He'll be a liability on the defensive boards against the Lakers and any other team that sports two legit rebounders at the frontcourt spots (the Knicks on the other hand).

For now, I'm happy with Baby, but I'm not going to be happy if 2/3 of JO, Shaq and Perk aren't available to bump him down the rotation come playoff time.

[GreenFaith1819]

Just caught some video highlights of last night's game.

The way that Baby has been playing here lately, we may have to change his nickname from "Big Baby" to "Big Grownup".

[Bankshot]

Just caught some video highlights of last night's game.

The way that Baby has been playing here lately, we may have to change his nickname from "Big Baby" to "Big Grownup".

Big Game Baby.

[mmbaby]

I havent' seen this mentioned here so am going to put it out there. When Baby misses a shot or loses a play, it seems like he gets this spurt of huge energy and really goes after the shot. It's happened so often when I've seen him lose a shot and then right after, make a bucket, that it's becoming predictable.

[LB3533]

Baby is one of our best hustle rebounders. He always has been.

Baby doesn't have to be a good rebounder for us, that's not his role.

With Perk, KG, Rondo, Pierce, Shaq and JO....those are the guys that will play the most and rebound the most when they are out there.

Baby's role is to get those hustle rebounds, the offensive rebounds and to take charges.