How do you feel about the Big Baby experience?

[Eja117]

There's been a tad bit o friction on this one and I'm curious how you all feel. I think we need to process this. Really.

[Eja117]

I have to admit I liked him at first

[pearljammer10]

Glad that its over.

[Fafnir]

I liked him as a player overall, but come on role players don't get to define an "era". That inflates the importance of a bit player in the saga of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and most of all Kevin Garnett.

[Eja117]

I liked him as a player overall, but come on role players don't get to define an "era". That inflates the importance of a bit player in the saga of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and most of all Kevin Garnett.

All right. Hold on

[Silent Storm]

He seemed decent initially but then his drawbacks became increasingly apparent with time. He's mentally unstable and does not make good decisions on the basketball court, not to mention his lack of discipline when it comes to losing weight.

[Roy H.]

I always preferred Powe.  I've appreciated a lot of the things that BBD has done on the court, but I've never particularly cared for his personality or his antics. 

I'm very happy with the trade.

[Cman]

I liked him and still do... as a bench/energy guy.
I'm with Roy that I always liked Powe better (go Cal Bears!), but at the end of the day I was pleasantly surprised by what we got out of BBD.  Great draft pick by Ainge, BTW.
I won't miss him much, though.

[LB3533]

I think we got the most we could out of him for a 2nd rounder, with weight issues, and eventually we found out with some personality and off the court issues as well.

I think Baby exceeded expectations so much so that the team and the fans depended on him to be some kind of "savior" for our team.

I think to an extent, he did prevail as a savior, especially when KG went down.

But when the time came for his next contract, I think that got in the way of Baby's basketball play. The dollar signs made it very unclear for Baby as to what was best for the team.

When the team needed him to be that "savior" again, he was too busy trying to "get his own" and ultimately played himself out of the team concept and was never able to get back into a role that allowed him to be as successful as he was once before.

[Fan from VT]

It was a roller coaster ride.

-Really liked him out of the draft as excellent VALUE as a second rounder that could be a solid bench player for a few years, and perhaps starter if he really got in shape (so I was thinking for a second round pick we got a virtual lock 9-man rotation guy and a 5% shot at a legit long term starter).

-He seemed to live up to the 9-man rotation part, so I was happy in that sense: C's had in fact found value, getting a contributor from the second round. Really rare, actually.

-Because he outperformed his relative draft position and was "unique," he started getting really really overrated...like people thinking he'd inherit the PF starting spot, should be 6th man, etc. However, If he was a top-10 pick and did what he did, he'd be considered a bust; if he wasn't rolly poley and unique he'd be another journeyman valuable bench PF. It was only the exceeding of expectations and his uniqueness that made him stand out as more than 9-man contributor.

-So I stared getting worried he'd get overpaid, as in paid al harrington type money despite doing what guys like Bass, Craig Smith, etc. all do for less than harrington money.

-One pitfall that is common is to get too excited about how much relative value you acquired in a draft/trade and then totally submarine that value by overcompensating once that player is a free agent. If you are lucky enough to draft a 9-man contributor in the second round, you have to recognize that that's all he is, and be able to part ways when the time comes, and not confuse "being really good FOR WHERE HE WAS DRAFTED" with "being really good." Being better than expected does nothing to increase actual value. If you expect a 2 and get a 5, it's still not as good as a 6, even if you expected the 6 to be a 6 or even a 7. Pay or cut ties based on what they actually give you.

[mgent]

'08:  Promising rookie who surprised me every time he ran down the court and didn't fall on all 4s

'09:  Made an awesome hustle-duo with Powe, who took care of the interior dirty work for him

'10:  Took a step sideways when Rasheed Wallace forced him to play where he belongs, resulting in a league-leading and probably historic percentage for blocked attempts

'11:  Was pushed back to the high post and looked like a top 5 6th-man, which caused him to step back with selfish play and horrid selection, resulting in an embarrassing second half to the year when his shooting met the law of averages, and wrapped up with an unbelievably pathetic playoff performance


In his 5th year, he's leaving the Celtics as pretty much the same player he was in his 2nd.

[Who]

Enjoyed BBD's presence whenever he was in restricted role (16-20mpg, fourth big in rotation) and hated his game whenever he played extended minutes (25+mpg) because his defense and rebounding contributions declined hugely.

I liked him a lot when he joined the Celtics. I was, and still am, very enthusiastic about how good a PF he could be if he dropped the weight (to 240lbs) but he never made an attempt and the C's organization never asked him too which disappointed me. I thought he could be somewhere in between a Udonis Haslem and a David West.

[mgent]

Enjoyed BBD's presence whenever he was in restricted role (16-20mpg, fourth big in rotation) and hated his game whenever he played extended minutes (25+mpg) because his defense and rebounding contributions declined hugely.

I liked him a lot when he joined the Celtics. I was, and still am, very enthusiastic about how good a PF he could be if he dropped the weight (to 240lbs) but he never made an attempt and the C's organization never asked him too which disappointed me. I thought he could be somewhere in between a Udonis Haslem and a David West.

I think they had salary incentives for weight loss in his contract but he didn't meet them.  What more could they really do?  If he wasn't gonna drop the 20 pounds or whatever it was for that, I doubt he'd be willing to drop 50.

[Who]

Enjoyed BBD's presence whenever he was in restricted role (16-20mpg, fourth big in rotation) and hated his game whenever he played extended minutes (25+mpg) because his defense and rebounding contributions declined hugely.

I liked him a lot when he joined the Celtics. I was, and still am, very enthusiastic about how good a PF he could be if he dropped the weight (to 240lbs) but he never made an attempt and the C's organization never asked him too which disappointed me. I thought he could be somewhere in between a Udonis Haslem and a David West.

I think they had salary incentives for weight loss in his contract but he didn't meet them.  What more could they really do?  If he wasn't gonna drop the 20 pounds or whatever it was for that, I doubt he'd be willing to drop 50.

Doc and Danny told BBD that they wanted him to stay big after his first and second seasons. That they thought his career was best off with the weight. That his heft made him the most effective player he could.

Now obviously they didn't mean overweight, they wanted him in shape ... but big bodied, 270lbs or something like that. Big.

Rather than losing a load of weight and getting down to 240lbs like most PFs.

[Liam W]

I never liked him

fat, undersized, got his shot blocked a lot

garbage