Watching Haslem Frustrates me

[Celtic#9]

For me, this is what seemed to happen. At the start of the season Baby was trying to prove himself, he was taking charges, getting in the lane, diving after balls. His minutes increased and everyone was legitimately impressed. So impressed in fact 6th Man of the Year talk began. Then he seemed to get some "swag". The "I'm gonna get my shots because I'm the best second unit player" attitude. He got too comfortable. He seemed to want his shots too much. He seemed to act less like a hustle guy. I'm willing to bet the when Udonis Haslem goes 0-5 all 5 shots were either putbacks, wide-open jumpers in the middle or end of the shot clock, or low post moves in the the scheme of the offense. That is who Baby is. He isn't a starter, and on a good team he never will be.

No, this isn't what happened at all. What happened is the second unit developed a mentality of "Eh, if we can't do jack with the ball, we can always toss it to Big Baby with 5 seconds on the clock -- he always seems to be able to do something with it".

From what I saw Baby was a little bit of a black hole. There were multiple occasions where I saw Baby get the ball with about 12-14 seconds left. Face his man and fake the drive then shoot a contested jumper.

One in particular I remember was a play against Carlos Boozer. There was a ball that was knocked loose. Baby recovered with about 9 left on the clock. He was about half a step inside the 3. Delonte was wide open behind him calling for the ball to try to reset or find a quick shot from the scattereed defense that was shaken from the loose ball. Baby, however, had other plans. He called off Delonte and Delonte went back to the top of the key. Baby was guarded one on one against Boozer with 7 seconds left. And shot a contested jumper, which he chunked. Thats the one I most vividly remember because I rewound it to watch again. This is just one i specifically remember.

That being said, I don't think Baby is a bad player. Not at all! He just seems to be a little out of his skillset the last few months. The way he played at the start was beautiful. That's the Baby I would resign.

[Dante]

Haslem is for the Heat what Powe was for us. I thought the purpose of this posting was to criticize Haslem and I was getting my weapons ready to defend him, but I see that Haslem' value is being recognized in here and Im happy for him. Haslem wont raise any eyebrows but he is there game in, game out doing all the dirty work and he is a hellof a blue collar worker, who will let the opposing players know they have to go thru him if they want to drive to score. Wish we had a player like that. thank you for somebody giving Haslem his due. Im a die hard Celtic fan, but that wont keep me from seeing value in other non-Celtic players. We just dont have the exclusive patent on having the best players.

[17wasEZ]

fights for rebounds all the time, has a nice simple little jumpshot from 15-18 ft out, takes charges, tons of productive energy and hustle.

That's exactly what Glen Davis does.

He certainly didn't do any of that in the playoffs and he didn't do much of it for the last month of the regular season, either.  And while Baby generally gives an effort, we've all seen him go through stretches where he's not just ineffective but actively harmful to the team when he's on the court.

Mike

b]And while Baby generally gives an effort, we've all seen him go through stretches where he's not just ineffective but actively harmful to the team when he's on the court.[/b]

LOL!  That comment above is FUNNY! 

[17wasEZ]

funny how quickly people forget the big baby of 09 and 2010.

Just leave him out to dry after a bad 6 months.

Could we have made the finals and almost beaten LA last year without big baby?

Highly unlikely,

Big Baby's failure to keep in shape and lose weight will kill his career. Has nothing to do with how well he played in 2009 and 2010.

You obviously know he was playing injured right?

Like I said, the guy has been the ultimate bench glue guy and then has a bad 6 months and everyone throws him under the bus.

Boston is a tough crowd to please.

Throw BBD under the bus?  Dude doesn't even fit under a bus.  How does a guy like him, KNOWING how important his play is to his team winning a title, put on so much weight DURING the season?

[gar]

sorry see my post below

[paulcowens]

I love it.  So rather than blame anything on the sacred Danny, everyone has decided to make Baby their scapegoat.   Isn't group think a lovely thing?  

[gar]

funny how quickly people forget the big baby of 09 and 2010.

Just leave him out to dry after a bad 6 months.

Could we have made the finals and almost beaten LA last year without big baby?

Highly unlikely,

Big Baby's failure to keep in shape and lose weight will kill his career. Has nothing to do with how well he played in 2009 and 2010.

You obviously know he was playing injured right?

Like I said, the guy has been the ultimate bench glue guy and then has a bad 6 months and everyone throws him under the bus.

Boston is a tough crowd to please.

The point is the nature of his injury will only make it even more important for him to reduce the load on his knees. Any way you look at it, if he does not shed 40-50 lbs. his NBA career will be over in a couple years. Sad, but true.

[17wasEZ]

I love it.  So rather than blame anything on the sacred Danny, everyone has decided to make Baby their scapegoat.   Isn't group think a lovely thing?  

Yup! Blame Danny!  Danny is to blame for Rondo getting hurt as well as:

1) BBD getting fat
2) Marquis getting hurt
3) Delonte getting hurt
4) JO breaking his wrist in the 1st round
5) Rondo dislocating his elbow in the 2nd round
6) The Celtics veterans aging on a minute by minute basis
7) Perk getting hurt last year and again this year (and still moving like a glacier with OKC)
8 ) Rondo dislocating his elbow in the 2nd round
9) The 2007 ping pong ball that didn't land Durant
10) The Celtics fading for the 4th straight year after starting off great
11) Lebron and Wade making Miami THAT GOOD

.....and Rondo got hurt.  Danny has definitely made some mistakes in his career, but this year's failure to win a championship was a team effort.  

[kozlodoev]

funny how quickly people forget the big baby of 09 and 2010.

Just leave him out to dry after a bad 6 months.

Could we have made the finals and almost beaten LA last year without big baby?

Highly unlikely,

Big Baby's failure to keep in shape and lose weight will kill his career. Has nothing to do with how well he played in 2009 and 2010.

You obviously know he was playing injured right?

Like I said, the guy has been the ultimate bench glue guy and then has a bad 6 months and everyone throws him under the bus.

Boston is a tough crowd to please.

Throw BBD under the bus?  Dude doesn't even fit under a bus.  How does a guy like him, KNOWING how important his play is to his team winning a title, put on so much weight DURING the season?

How much?

[17wasEZ]

funny how quickly people forget the big baby of 09 and 2010.

Just leave him out to dry after a bad 6 months.

Could we have made the finals and almost beaten LA last year without big baby?

Highly unlikely,

Big Baby's failure to keep in shape and lose weight will kill his career. Has nothing to do with how well he played in 2009 and 2010.

You obviously know he was playing injured right?

Like I said, the guy has been the ultimate bench glue guy and then has a bad 6 months and everyone throws him under the bus.

Boston is a tough crowd to please.

Throw BBD under the bus?  Dude doesn't even fit under a bus.  How does a guy like him, KNOWING how important his play is to his team winning a title, put on so much weight DURING the season?

How much?

Why? Looking to buy a bus?

[Who]

  I really can't believe all the shots people are taking at Perk for playing when he's not healthy yet. It's been less than a year since that serious knee injury.

Me either.

[LilRip]

I love it.  So rather than blame anything on the sacred Danny, everyone has decided to make Baby their scapegoat.   Isn't group think a lovely thing?  

you overexaggerate. I'm still iffy on the trade but it's happened. Having Jeff Green or Perk wouldn't have mattered in that Heat series. We needed a healthy Rondo and a bench.

The reason for this post is that i'm watching Haslem right now who is more or less playing the way i hoped BBD would play for us. He was great in the start of the year, but he dropped off significantly. and the frustrating thing is, he didn't even need to drop off. But he started trying to do too much of things he shouldn't be doing (jacking up unnecessary shots) and started doing less of the things he should've been doing (boxing out, taking charges). Little things still matter in the big picture and role players (like Haslem) are usually the ones to do that.

not throwing him under the bus. Not saying he sucks, but can't we criticize the performance of our players? and furthermore, not only criticize, but also provide a concrete example of what reasonable expectation we had of them? I'm not asking BBD to be KG but being similar to Haslem is well within his capabilities.

[kozlodoev]

funny how quickly people forget the big baby of 09 and 2010.

Just leave him out to dry after a bad 6 months.

Could we have made the finals and almost beaten LA last year without big baby?

Highly unlikely,

Big Baby's failure to keep in shape and lose weight will kill his career. Has nothing to do with how well he played in 2009 and 2010.

You obviously know he was playing injured right?

Like I said, the guy has been the ultimate bench glue guy and then has a bad 6 months and everyone throws him under the bus.

Boston is a tough crowd to please.

Throw BBD under the bus?  Dude doesn't even fit under a bus.  How does a guy like him, KNOWING how important his play is to his team winning a title, put on so much weight DURING the season?

How much?

Why? Looking to buy a bus?

No, looking for evidence you have any idea what you're talking about.

[Vermont Green]

I think comparing Haslem and Davis makes sense as they are similar in level of talent and role.  If it is true that Haslem lost 70 lbs since college (I wasn't aware of this) then that is the part of the story that Davis needs to pay attention to.  I don't really have a problem with what Davis does on the court.  Tommy H said that Davis lost his conditioning during the season and that is why he started to lose his shot.  Again, I don't know this but I'll believe Tommy.

Davis is going to sign probably his biggest contract of his career this year.  I am guessing that for every pound of flesh he loses, he could probably get another $50,000 per year and maybe even get years added on to the contract.  OK, who wants to sign up for that, $50,000 per year for say 3 years for every pound that you lose.

[EJPLAYA]

funny how quickly people forget the big baby of 09 and 2010.

Just leave him out to dry after a bad 6 months.

Could we have made the finals and almost beaten LA last year without big baby?

Highly unlikely,

Big Baby's failure to keep in shape and lose weight will kill his career. Has nothing to do with how well he played in 2009 and 2010.

You obviously know he was playing injured right?

Like I said, the guy has been the ultimate bench glue guy and then has a bad 6 months and everyone throws him under the bus.

Boston is a tough crowd to please.

Throw BBD under the bus?  Dude doesn't even fit under a bus.  How does a guy like him, KNOWING how important his play is to his team winning a title, put on so much weight DURING the season?

How much?

Why? Looking to buy a bus?

No, looking for evidence you have any idea what you're talking about.

If you can't see that BBD has put on 25+ lbs of fat this season then you are either not paying attention, or not willing to be honest about it. He is clearly fatter than he was. There are reports he fired his personal trainer which helps explain why. He has become slower to rotate on defense which is why you rarely saw him draw a charge later in the season and playoffs. He has no lift to his jumper which helps explain his big slide in shooting from the outside. He also regressed in rebounding after making a small stride forward to mediocre, slipping back to awful. Just like I can look in the mirror and at photos and know that I have put on weight, so can all the rest of us look at BBD and know that is the case with him as well. Saying "prove it" or "no he didn't" doesn't help your case. I think you'd rather change the argument away from his play though because no one can defend that. Awful and he has worn out his welcome both on and off the floor.