The five minute interview’s highlights include Delonte discussing “future All-Stars” Tony Allen and Al Jefferson, (2 minute mark) and Paul Pierce anticipating a trip to Europe (3:30) to scout for the team’s trip there for next year, that we all know will go down in history.

An entertaining few minutes if nothing else, and you have the sense that both West and Pierce genuinely get along here. You know Danny wouldn’t have brought in West without the blessing for the key members of his roster, so it’s apparent here just how comfortable Delonte was in Boston back then. Here’s to hoping he can return to that place next season.

Bonus goodness after the jump

You guys all remember the ill-fated leather ball era? The NBA switched in mid-season back to the original design a couple years back and Delonte and a few teammates were asked about the switch back. Hilarity ensued.

Between him, Shaq Shrek and Donkey, that’s going to be an entertaining locker room next year.

This is a good period to be a Celtics fan. Don’t forget that.

Again: This is a great deal, and it’s a great deal because the C’s aren’t giving up any basketball assets to make it happen. And that, to me, is the story of this off-season.

With only the mid-level exception and some pseudo-Bird Rights, the Celtics have signed Jermaine O’Neal, Shaquille O’Neal, Wafer, West, Nate Robinson and Marquis Daniels, all without giving up a single basketball asset. The Celtics are the deepest team in the NBA, 1-15.

Perhaps they could have nabbed Rudy Fernandez in exchange for a first-round pick and Avery Bradley. I have no idea. But West is better than Fernandez, and they got him for nothing. First-round picks, even middling ones, are going to be crucial for this team as the core leaves the NBA, and upgrading the bench without sacrificing one of those picks is a strong outcome.

Back to West, in bullet point form:

• The competition for back-up guard minutes is going to be intense. A team can only dress 12 players for each game, so Wafer, Luke Harangody, Semih Erden and Avery Bradley (and, if things go badly, West), will be spending tons of time in street clothes or (for the young guys) the D League.

West is basically a two guard, though he’s capable of playing the point for a possession or two if Rajon is tired and Nate Robinson is being stupid. But Wafer and West are like insurance policies for each other. They are both unpredictable in very different ways, and we should not be shocked if one of them fails to make it through the season or withdraws into an unproductive shell.

Both could also be major post-season rotation players capable of creating points when the C’s offense sputters. It’s better to have two wild cards than one, right? It definitely is in UNO.

• The pressure is on Marquis Daniels. He is the only back-up small forward on the roster, unless you count Harangody, and I’m very, very, very skeptical that we’re ever going to see Harangody at the three in a meaningful game. Daniels has played more than 62 regular-season games just once in seven NBA seasons.

• West is a versatile offensive player, the sort of player who can make tough shots and create points during those dreaded offensive droughts that killed Boston last season. Check out his shot location stats on Hoopdata: He gets to the rim, he has a mid-range game and he’s an above-average shooter on threes and long twos. He can create off the dribble, and he’s an excellent passer.

He can be turnover prone, and with the exception of his career year in ’09, he has been mediocre at finishing shots at the rim. But after years of watching TA dribble the ball off his foot, it will be nice to see key back-up minutes go to a competent offensive player.

• West is a rugged defender. He’s a classic “under-sized” two at 6’4”, but every objective measure we have suggests he’s an asset on defense. The Cavs gave up significantly fewer points with West on the floor in each of the last three seasons, according to Basketball Value’s plus/minus numbers. Playing with LeBron and Anderson Varejao obviously helps in that regard. Basketball Prospectus shows us that West’s direct counterparts—the guys he guarded—produced at well below their average levels when they faced him.

He’s not Tony Allen, but West will do fine against shooting guards in the C’s defensive system. He’s about 30 pounds lighter than TA, so he won’t be able to defend LeBron (and other strong small forwards) should the C’s and Heat ever meet in the post-season. That would mean more work for Pierce and Daniels.

Look: I get how this could end badly. West will already miss the first 10 games of the season due to a suspension, and last season proved that his moods could impact his play and the way he interacts with his teammates. But he was a model teammate as recently as 2009, and he could just as easily thrive in a veteran-heavy locker room filled with players who know and like him.

And it’s a risk-free deal, as long as you’re not the one signing the luxury tax checks. And I’m not, at least not directly. So sign me up.

On Trading Delonte West in 2007:

“He was one of the toughest guys for me to trade, I’d do it again, of course, but we really liked Delonte when he was here. Even though we knew the issues and the challenges he needed to take care of, we also think Delonte is in a better place today than he was the day he left. He wasn’t perfect, but we still liked the player.”

On Team’s Familiarity with West:

“There’s a familiarity with the roster and a familiarity with the players, Paul [Pierce] and Rajon [Rondo], especially, were big fans having played with him. I’m a fan of Delonte.”

On  Training Camp Plans:

“When I played for the Celtics, we never went away… It’s a long season, guys can sleep in their own beds.”

On Prospects of Tony Gaffney and Oliver Lafayette of Making The Roster:

“We’ll keep the best players.”

A couple other key notes from Forsberg’s column include the admission that Ainge wouldn’t close the door on making any more moves before the start of the season. Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe also got Ainge to open up about the team considering West’s past before breaking him in:

“He is a competitor and we’re all aware (of his issues) and we’ve done a lot of checks and had a lot of conversation with Delonte and his people and we obviously have a long history with Delonte also and we think he can help us win.”

“We liked him. He was well-received by our fans, by our coaches and well-received by our teammates because he’s a guy who gives all he’s got every night. Delonte’s had some challenges off the court and I feel that right now that some of those challenges have given him some pretty serious wake-up calls. I think he’s actually in a better place today than when he left us a few years ago.”

I’ll have a full post analyzing Delonte later tonight, but it’s hard to argue with Ainge’s analysis here. The guy was one of the few bright spots this team had this decade before The Big Three Era. Danny is clearing putting all his eggs in one basket here for this year before the start of a potential Heat dynasty, and given the team’s history with West, they clearly have a much better sense of familiarity with him that enabled them to take a chance on bringing him in.

Most of West’s serious off-court problems surfaced after he left Boston, so hopefully this return brings a sense of stability back to his life as well as a chance to start fresh.

The Boston Herald has the scoop:

Delonte West is coming back to the Celtics

A league source confirmed moments ago that the former Celts guard is prepared to sign a free-agent deal with the team.

According to a source, West will sign a non-guaranteed contract and will be on hand when the team begins camp this fall.

A full analysis of the move on the way……

“It still hurts the same,” Rivers said. “That won’t go away. I had dinner with [Rajon] Rondo and ‘Baby’ [Glen Davis] in Vegas and they were talking about how much it hurts. I said, ‘I hope it hurts you for the rest of your life. It should.’ ”

Those are some harsh words.  Harsh, but all too true and important.  It’s nice to know that professional athletes have the capacity to care about their craft as much as fans do.  All too often there are stories about athletes not caring or purposely not giving everything they have (see Vince Carter).

Rivers knows all too well about life long regrets.  In 1994, Rivers was on the New York Knicks team that lost the NBA Finals to the Houston Rockets after being up 3-2.  Eeeshhh.  Remind you of anything?

At any rate, this type of tough love is yet another example of why I wish Doc Rivers were my Dad.

Daniels’ performance next season is one that bears close watching for C’s fans. Brought back on a one-year $2.4 million deal, purely out of necessity more than anything else, Daniels follows up last season’s disappointing campaign as the team’s top reserve at a wing position thin on depth.

The C’s can’t afford another down year from Daniels, with Tony Allen out of the picture and Ray Allen and Paul Pierce one year older. Those guys need to have their minutes kept down during the regular season more than ever, and Daniels needs to hold his own as a key reserve.

The good news is I expect Marquis to step up to the challenge. A clean bill of health and not having to learn a new system should do wonders for Daniels’ play as he becomes more comfortable in Celtic green without having to battle TA for minutes.

The guy has the overall skill set to be a big contributor; I just don’t think we saw him really healthy at all last year. If he can stay healthy (a huge if, I know), Daniels has both the ability and a strong supporting cast on the bench to excel in his role this season.

I don’t expect him to play 82 games, but a strong bounce-back performance — in a make-or-break season for his career — should be in the cards.

Let’s get a bit more in-depth here as there are a few more points I want to dig into more in discussing Daniels’ prospects next year

1) Daniels’ was hurt essentially all of last year.

It’s easy to forget that Quisy hurt his thumb initially back on November 14th last year, just 10 games into the season. He played through the pain for nine more games, before re-aggravating the thumb again in early December, at which point x-rays revealed the torn ligaments. So although Daniels played in 50+ games last year, don’t let the numbers fool you, he played with a busted thumb for a lot of them.

2) Daniels was playing pretty well in February before Nate Robinson arrived

This speaks more to the lack of a defined role for Daniels that caused his play and playing time to take a nosedive in the final months of the year. Let’s take a look at the numbers first in February, in which Quisy was manning the point upon returning from his thumb injury.

9 games, 9.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.2 apg, 64.9% FG

Easily his best month of the year in the C’s uniform. Nate Robinson made his debut at the very end of February for the Green Teamers, becoming almost immediately the C’s primary scoring option off the bench, as well as someone who needed the ball in his hands to be effective. With that in mind, let’s take a look at Daniels’ numbers once Robinson arrived for the month of March:

17 games, 3.8 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0.8 apg, 39% FG

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not trying to blame Daniels’ struggles entirely on Robinson. TA obviously was stepping up his game at this juncture, and began to steal away some (and eventually all) of Daniels minutes by the end of the regular season, by doing the little things, (rebound, defense, etc.) with more urgency that Quisy was.

The combination of all these factors (injury, shifting role, new teammates) took their toll on Marquis throughout the campaign, as there always seemed to be one obstacle or another in his way.

3) Daniels can’t be counted on to stay healthy

The evidence is there right now in his career numbers (71 games career high) but Quisy is injury prone. There is no getting around it. And this Celtic team is planning on walking a very fine line with their older crew if they plan on going into next season with Quisy, Von Wafer and a rookie like Tony Gaffney at the wing position. Wafer has been an injury liability as well, and Gaffney, well we all know how much Doc trusts younger players.

The truth is, this area of the roster is more vulnerable than even the front line as far as the depth department goes. If Ray or Paul goes down for any extended period of time next year, this team could be in big trouble. So no matter what you expect out of Quisy next year, another sure thing at the wing should be brought in before the season starts to maximize the team’s depth and ability to keep Ray’s and Paul’s minutes down during the regular season.

When asked by the Boston Globe about the team’s high expectations of Davis, he responded by saying all the right things:

“This is the year of finally hitting that line of maturity of finally becoming that player that I knew I could be. This is the year of just all-around. Throughout my career, my three years being here, it’s been up and down. When I play, you’ve seen glimpses, like, ‘Wow, this guy could start. Or come off the bench.’ Glimpses up and down. But this is the year of Glen becoming that whole player that 10 years down the road, eight years down the road will hopefully be an all-star.”

A couple of things should give some Celtics fans pause.  The most obvious concern is playing time with the Celtics’ new acquisitions on the front line.  Jermaine O’Neal, Shaquille O’Neal and even Luke Harangody should all have some effect on Davis’ playing time.  No longer will Davis be used to body up the likes of Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard- the Celtics now have Shaquille O’Neal for that.  No longer is it a foregone conclusion that Glen Davis will be the first or second player up off the bench once Kendrick Perkins has completely recovered from his knee injury.

Glen Davis is 24 years old.  It’s safe to say that he will not be an All Star ten years from now.  Positivity is one thing, delusion is another.  All NBA players aspire to do great things- win championships, become All Stars, be good teammates- but Davis has enjoyed so much success with the Boston Celtics because he has eschewed some of his more personal goals for the greater good of the team.  Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge have asked Davis to do many things outside of his comfort zone.  Davis has been asked to guard centers, stretch fours, and some small forwards.  When Kevin Garnett went down with his mysterious leg injury and did not play in the 2008-2009 playoffs, Davis filled in admirably by showing off his versatility and skills he had not had to use since college.

So what does this all mean for next year?  There is no doubt in my mind that Davis can become  a good NBA player.  A rotation player who can fill a need for many teams.  But what is his ceiling?  If I had to take a guess on how good Davis could really be, I would put my money on par with Rodney Rogers.  Not a bad person to emulate but not an All Star.

Davis could also just easily regress, a la Detroit’s Jason Maxiell.  Maxiell once appeared to be a lock to be the heir apparent to  Ben Wallace.  Now he looks more like a short power forward whose range does not extend beyond 15 feet.

How good Davis can be on the court is one thing, and then there’s that one key word Davis used that should have been a red flag to any Celtics fan: maturity.  The NBA is a world where actions speak much louder than words. It’s pretty hard to imagine Glen Davis taking his emotions out of his play.  It’s hard to imagine an And-1 without a flex and a yell.  It’s hard to imagine that Shrek and Donkey are a thing of the past.

A few weeks before Glen Davis talked about becoming the mature player he needs to be this season, he was knee deep in a Dougie war with Nate Robinson.  In the two weeks since Davis has made these statements, he (or should I say his Twitter) has shown us Big Baby as a rocked out Waldo, a Steve Urkel-esque nerd, and what Big Baby as aptly titled “his Dump Face“.

Those are just the pictures with which Glen Davis has treated the entire Interwebs.  These do not include some sage advice to which his followers have been privy: “if your girl make high heels from playless look like some red bottoms form saks!! she a keeper!!! Believe the baby” and “If your girl can put make up on and texts and eat her breakfast at the same time !!! She a keeper!! Believe the baby!!!”.

None of these things are as bad as choking out a D-League player or throwing your girlfriend down a flight of stairs.  Nowhere close.  However, Davis will have to prove that his maturity will manifest itself through his play and on-court composure.

What do you think?  Do you “believe the baby” when he says he’s going to reach the level of maturity necessary to be a great NBA player? Is Glen Davis primed for a breakout year?  Will we never see the Big Baby cry on the bench again?