Friday Notebook: Baby’s Minutes, Opposing Scouts

Posted by Zach Lowe on Oct 23, 2009 Comments Off

Big Baby still sounds like he’s adjusting to the reality of playing fewer minutes this season. Via the Herald:

“It’s real difficult to go back, from playing 30 minutes or even 35 on a good night, to playing 12 or 15 on a good night,” Davis said. “There’s a lot of great players on this team.”

Surely, he’s being hard on himself. Surely, there’s more playing time in store.

“I hope so,” he said.

As a result, Davis now faces a significant mental challenge. He must accept a smaller role.

“I don’t know how to accept that yet,” he said. “I don’t know how to do it yet. It’s not as if we’ve gone over it. Nobody tells me nothing.”

And there’s this tidbit as well:

Asked if he had hoped for an offer from a team with a need for a starting power forward, Davis said, “Yup.”

We know now this isn’t going to be a problem. Big Baby looks great, and he’s going to get plenty of minutes considering the age of the other two main forwards on the team. If you set the over/under on Baby’s minutes/game at 20, I’d take the over in a second. But it’s still an interesting window into a young player’s mindset.

• Speaking of interesting windows, Sports Illustrated has an anonymous scout talking in detail about the C’s today—and picking them to win the title. The whole things is very scout-y, in that grizzled, cigar-chomping way scouts have of talking. Take this description of Rajon:

In the big picture, when that ball goes up, he’s a tiger. He doesn’t want to come out of the game, he does the dirty work, he pushes the ball and gets it to people. He’s a very unselfish passer who doesn’t have to overdribble before he makes the pass. I love the way he plays.

He’s a tiger! Scouts are awesome. The full report is worth your time, though most of what he says we’ve heard before—the championship window is now, Sheed will get some playing time with the starters and Rondo is the best young guy on the team. Here are some interesting excerpts.

On Truth:

He used to be a reluctant passer but now he’s totally bought into moving the ball. His defense is better, too. He belongs up there in the history of the Celtics with theJohn Havliceks and theTom Heinsohns. He’s already one of the all-time leading scorers in the history of the franchise, and in terms of his minutes played and durability, he’s been tremendous.

Amen, Mr. Scout.

The scout talks about the bench—including our favorite mercurial sub—after the jump.

I know everyone does a lot of hating on TA these days, but this is a pretty solid summation of his career:

Then there isTony Allen, who is unreliable. He doesn’t have a good basketball IQ. He’ll make the steal but follow it with a stupid foul. You can’t put him in comfortably to let the other guys rest. While he’s in the game you’re hoping he won’t do something to screw it all up for you, and that kind of guy doesn’t fit in with a team like this.

“While he’s in the game you’re hoping he won’t do something to screw it all up for you.” That could be TA’s basketball epitaph. I just vomited with flashbacks to the 4th quarter of Game 6 against the Bulls last season.

And, finally, on our big off-season acquisitions:

A lot of people called the signing ofRasheed Wallacea home run, but to me the real home run was gettingMarquis Danielsat such a cheap price [$1.99 million]. He’ll play both ends at both of the wing positions. I know he’s been undisciplined, but the Celtics will help him there. He can be a scoring machine if the Celtics can keep him within the system, which I think they’ll do. Thibodeau is going to love having him.

Alright. Enough talk. Season tips Tuesday, baby.