My thoughts on the Celtics and their bench in game 1 (Glen Davis Rant)

[dlpin]

The 3.1 shots at the rim definitely cannot explain the 5.9 shots from beyond 10 feet, given that they represent two mutually exclusive sets.

In any case, the only thing I tried to present here is the fact that his shooting percentage suffers because he takes more shots toward the end of the shot clock than anyone else on our team. This fact is pretty much beyond dispute.

Given that I first observed that the team tends to treat Davis as a "bailout pig" with regularity while watching games, I find it refreshing that the facts agree with my unscientific observation. Therefore, I am inclined to conclude that Davis gets a lot of undeserved flack for what really constitutes poor offensive execution by the entire team (including Davis).

We wouldn't be having this discussion, if Davis was shooting closer to the .480 average he has in the first 20 seconds of the clock. But he doesn't, and the problem is not that he likes to chuck the ball so much.

He's obviously still liable for criticism for being part of a unit that has difficulties executing offensively, but a lot of the criticism he gets lately is misguided.

I thought it was clear when I talked about the 3.1 shots at the rim that I was referring to your contention that his unassisted shots late in the shot clock came from drives to the rim. But if you want to play this little "gotcha" game, more power to you.

While his shooting percentage might suffer from occasionally having to bail the team out late in the shot clock, the stats pretty much show that he is a poor shooter regardless of that.

And 48% in the first 20 seconds is a bit misleading. the breakdown is:

0-10: .500
11-15: .522
16-20: .435
21+: .356

He is the second worst on the team from 16-20 seconds (and the worst, Kristic, doesn't take nearly as many shots).

Again, the bottom line is that even discounting the true "got the ball in the last second and put up a bad shot," Davis still takes way too many bad shots. Again, bottom 5 in the entire league in fg% from 16-23 for those with at least 3 attempts.

[scoop1977]

The reason why he's taking too much flack is that the rest of the team exploits his offensive versatility to bail themselves out all the time. In fact, in percentage terms, Davis is taking substantially more shots in the last 4 seconds of the shot clock than anyone else on the Celtics (close to 25% of his total shots), and it's no surprise that he his shooting percentage for this segment (~.350) makes him look bad.

This is an interesting stat - what's your source?  I saw about 3 shots from Baby in Game 1 that were from getting tossed the ball with little time on the clock, but I didn't realize it was this consistent.

82games.com: http://www.82games.com/1011/1011BOS.HTM

I've been suspecting this for a long time, since it appeared to establish itself as a pattern lately, especially with a unit of 5 bench players -- pass it around for 20 seconds, get nothing, toss it to Baby who's the "good pig" in the lineup and will always find a way to get a shot off, maybe even make it occasionally.

I don't think it's fair to Davis, and I think he's doing a very good job of playing hard and trying to help the team to the best of his abilities.

To put things in perspective, Davis is taking 24% of his shots in the 21+ segment of the clock. For comparison, the "big 4", Green, and Shaq are somewhere in the 13-18% range.

82games.com also shows that the shots that Davis takes in the last seconds of the shot clock are also his least "assisted" shots. While over 70% of his shots in the first 20 seconds are "assisted," only 60% of those in the last 4 are. This means that the scenario you described, where he gets the ball late in the clock and has to put up a bad shot, is less common than you say.

Those numbers are for made shots, not shot attempts.

[LB3533]

Some people just want Baby to be a player that he is not.

Baby was one of our best big men, a leading candidate for 6th man of the year earlier on in the season.

When our frontline decided to go MIA due to injury, Baby was forced to play multiple roles, ones he was not able to flourish in.

I have no doubts in my mind that Baby will be our 2nd best big man in the playoffs....when all is said and done.

[ath2o]

Let me add this, if Baby is our 2nd big man, this will be a one round series.No team will be NBA champs with Davis getting over 10 mins. He's simply not talented enough. Too short to defend his position, can't jump,last back on defense etc.

[Yogi]

Good enough to make it to the game 7 of the Finals.  Good enough to bring it home this year. 

[jimmywolfrey]

Garnett is also 3 inches taller and can get a shot over the back of the defender at almost any point in time.

I don't understand people sometimes. They bash Davis when he settles for jump shots. Then they bash him when his assisted shot percentage is too low (meaning he's driving to the basket rather than settling for jump shots).

I think we bash him for not knowing his own range.  I'm all for taking jump shots that are not altered in any way by the defense but there is a line on the court where Davis becomes okay to bad.  Once he crosses that line he needs to make a move to the basket or give the ball up.  And the ball distributors should also know that if big baby is out of his range not to give it him with 3 seconds on the shot clock.

[LB3533]

For me, I just don't think JO or Shaq can keep up decent play consistently, nor stay consistently healthy throughout the rest of the playoffs.

Davis will get the bulk of the chance to play and he will be our 2nd best big man when all is said in done.

[EJPLAYA]

You can throw as many stats as you want out there to try and confuse the situation and pretend to make a point, but the fact of the matter is he's a poor shooter, poor rebounder, horrid assist guy, and quite honestly not near the defender he was a couple years ago. It's all a bunch of nonsense that doesn't make him a very good player at his overweight size. At his trimmest BBD was almost the player that you try to pretend he is. At his current porky size he is too slow too play consistent offense, and too fat to be a better defender. The point has been made, and I will repeat it again, that Jeff Green not getting as many minutes is where the problem lies. He can suck in all those areas just as much as BBD if he is playing poorly, but will actually knock down that jumper consistently. More Green is the answer. Less Pork Chop.