Learning about Marquis

After weeks of what felt like a Sergio Leone directed movie standoff, the Celtics and Marquis Daniels finally came to terms on a contract. It appears to be a 1 year deal for almost $2m. I’m very optimistic about this signing. The C’s desperately needed a backup wing last year (which by the way, isn’t the 2 and 3 the most talented positions in the league? And Tony Allen was the guy? Jeesh) and Daniels has the versatility the play either spot.

Early indications from Doc Rivers is that he’s thinking he’ll be the backup 2. But Daniels seems like a legit 6’6 so I don’t think he shouldn’t be an option for the 3 (unless Bill Walker, or JR Giddens, improves significantly). Regardless he should be a solid upgrade from Tony Allen.

A few things of note regarding Marquis that some people might not know. First off, he’s a lousy perimeter shooter (think Rajon Rondo-ish) only shooting 23% on 3Pt% for his career. From what I’ve seen of him throughout his career his range is 15-17 feet and in. He does handle the ball well and I was impressed when he played point guard along with Nash in Dallas early in his career. Secondly he has been injury prone. Not including 2008 when he played in 74 games, his next highest games in a season was 62 (and he’s normally not a DNP-CD guy).

Thirdly, he has excessive tattoos (how this guy hasn’t played for Denver with that body art is beyond me). As you can see from these below images, he’s got a lot of tats, and some (like the guy swallowing a shotgun on the lower right) are pretty graphic. He has explanations for them all. Thinking of it though who was a recent Celt that has as many tattoos as Daniels. I guess Marbury (if he counts) or Mikki Moore (he shouldn’t count)? Maybe Eddie House?

Nevertheless the more important thing I was interested in was how Daniels matched up against Bean Bryant and LeBron last year. Granted Daniels was injured a lot last year (and I only caught the first Indiana-LA game) but here were their relevant stats in the games Daniels played:

Ind 118-LA 117: 12/2/08

Bean: 37 mins, 28 pts, 7 rbs, 2 assts, 10-21 fg, 0-5 3ptfg, 1 TO

Marquis: 31 mins, 16 pts, 5 rbs, 3 assts, 4-15 fg, 0 fouls

Cleveland 111-Ind 107: 11/7/08

James: 39 mins, 27 pts, 9 rbs, 8 assts, 11-24 fg, 1-6 3ptfg, 4 TO

Marquis: 37 mins, 17 pts, 11 rbs, 7 assts, 7-18 fg, 3 fouls

Cleveland 97-Ind 73: 12/5/08

James: 37 mins, 27 pts, 8 rbs, 11 assts, 4-12 fg, 0-4 3ptfg, 2 TO

Marquis: 28 mins, 4 pts, 0 rbs, 3 assts, 2-7 fg, 2 fouls

Daniels missed the other 2 games vs Cleveland as well as the other game vs the Fakers. What does this all mean? Nothing exactly. For all I know Danny Granger may have played the majority of minutes defending Bryant and James (although I have a feeling he didn’t). It looks to me these guys consistently shot like crap from 3 pt range. And in the 2 games that Daniels showed up his team won or was close.

Of course the Celts thrive on team defense and Daniels will be a cog to that. Much like James Posey was. I’m not expecting him to shoot the 3 well like Posey at all but if he can fit in defensively, handle the ball when House is playing 2 and allow Ray and Paul to keep their regular season minutes in the low 30s (I’m seriously hoping somehow high 20s, but doubt it’s possible with Doc) than he will play his role as 7^th or 8^th man to perfection. And no one will wonder about his tattoos anymore :)