Green Target: Chris Kaman

I'm still dazed and confused. Are we talking about basketball or about last night's show on TV? Or is our main character a member of a Metal band from Iowa?

Hard to say.

I am talking about a guy that could very well be part of the cast of a TV show, True Blood for instance. 7 footer, loves to hunt and fish and seems to have had a very low profile in the early stages of his career. His skin -white as marble- and his demeanor on the court for great part of his NBA career -wearing that fiery long hair- make him a good candidate for the famous serial. Or wait, wouldn't he be better for the role of Thor?

Now seriously, Mr Chris Kaman is a very talented player, former 2010 All Star who currently is in the roster of the Los Angeles Clippers. He happens to be a center - a position that urgently needs an upgrade for our Celtics- and he is also due more than 12 million dollars for next season. But I will insist on this: he only has one season left. We will hear about Kaman a lot in the next weeks or months.


How the Celtics could get him:

As JR mentioned yesterday, it is very likely that an Amnesty Clause will be installed with the new CBA. Teams would be able to get rid of some bad contract in order to have more flexibility.

Did I mention he belongs to the Clippers?

He is also sharing the starting center position to another Green Target candidate, who is also looking for a big pay raise. It is easy to imagine that the stingy owners of the LA franchise would rather spend some money on Jordan than in Kaman, at least money wise it would be cheaper for them to do so.

Furthermore it seems both players were sending a message to their team last season: pick one of us and let the other one leave:
“I don’t know, it’s something I’m going to have to think about this summer and something I’m gonna go over and think about because, you know, I think DeAndre’s a good player and he does a good job for us, and I think I’ve proven myself in this league. I mean, this is my eighth year and I just want to continue to improve on my game and I think sometimes it’s hard for both of us to get the best out of what we can do when we’re splittin’ time. We’ll see how it goes, a lot can happen this summer.”
All signs indicate that Kaman will be set free or dealt by the Clippers and once he is available I am convinced he is on the top positions in Danny's list.

Pros:

He has career averages of 12 and 8, he was an All Star recently and he plays center. He is tough, he can shoot and he always fights. He has a nice offensive skills set too .He averaged 18 and 9 two years ago and he got marks of 13 rebounds per game in 2008. Because we need rebounding and we need some talent in the middle. At this point the addition of Kaman would make us instantly better.

There are not many true centers out there, and even less for the price that Kaman would have if he leaves the Clippers.

He is tough, big and talented. No more to say. Danny should try and sign him.

Cons:

He has played for 8 years for the Clippers. Eight. I do not know if that may have affected the sportsman's mind. Losing very often and being part of such a dysfunctional organization may have an influence on your will or desire to grow as a basketball player. Then again, that may make him hungrier and thirstier -again the True Blood vampire imagery comes back to mind- for a chance to be in a winning team. He must be tired of losing.

Another point is injuries. He lost most of last season and has a tendency of getting injured. That is not a good sign when we already have a center that gets injured while breathing. But then again, that can work on our favor since Danny has a history of singing players with injury troubles. Will he target Kaman? I bet he will.


I think we should target Kaman and I am convinced Danny will try to do so. Talented big men with a good contract situation and coming out of a losing team are rare. Chris has the perfect profile in his curriculum to be a genuine and realistic Green Target. Stay tuned.