Baynes to the Rescue

[spikelovetheCelts]

I said this in another thread but it belongs here and not there:  He adds another big to help Al out for certain match ups, is a good screen setter, a good team defender and adds toughness.  He can also stretch the floor and pull out other bigs like Embiid out of the paint.  The Celtics have a defensive rating of 97.9 when Baynes is on the floor vs 106.2 when he's off.  They also have a record of 15-2 when Baynes plays 15 minutes and 22-21 when he plays zero to 14 minutes.  When he missed time at the turn of the year we went 7-7 and when he came back we won 6 in a row and went 8-1 before he went down again.

He’s obviously not the only reason for the wins but I really doubt it’s a complete coincidence that we win that much more with him playing.

Those are numbers that have shown themselves well. We may need to think about Gortat if Baynes has any problems.

[Rosco917]

What confuses me is that most of us can see the value of Baynes. He closes up the middle, plays excellent positional D, and give us true physicality when we need it.

Yet there is no true backup center to replace him if he gets injured again on the team. (certainly not Williams or Theis)  If he is THIS important, and we can see it, why didn't Danny look for a veteran backup center that would have clearly help maybe avoid some of our recent losses? 

Yes, I agreed we miss Baynes mush more than some would believe.