Are There Enough Minutes For Big Baby?
Danny Ainge, with the help of the Big 3 and Doc, was able to bring in Rasheed Wallace this past offseason to give us a solid 6th man and backup big. Not just solid, but all-star caliber. Questions were raised whether Rasheed should start, but it appears the Doc is sticking with Perk, which is the right call. In today's Globe, Perkins mentioned that he was not threatened by Rasheed being here. In truth there are 96 big man minutes to go around and the threesome averaged 93 minutes last year, so they should all be content. Problem is what about Glen Davis? Glen played 36.4 minutes per game in the playoffs this past year, and while I'm sure he doesn't need 30 plus minutes to be happy, how will he feel about 3? Even if Sheed and KG chisel a couple minutes per game off and go into the 20's, that would still leave Big Baby with ony 6 or 7 total minutes. While Davis is great insurance for an injury, one can't blame him for pursuing other teams, with one of his reasons being specifically that he was worried about playing time on the C's after the Wallace signing.
Doc has talked about playing Perk, KG, and Rasheed together sometimes. That's about as logical as Doc saying he's going to have Scalabrine guard some 2's. At this point in their careers, Rasheed and KG can't play the 3, and I'm not sure the former ever could. So camp has started and everyone has their happy face on, but what happens as the season goes on and Baby is logging less then 10 minutes per game on the regular? He did not achieve his goal of getting a lucrative contract this Summer, so playing time has to be huge for him, and I don't blame him.
I wonder if Danny has plans to move Davis wants KG proves his health. Not because Davis isn't good ( He averaged 16 and 6 in the playoffs), but because of "fit." Is Davis an NBA starter? I don't believe so. At least not yet. But Davis is a rotation guy who deserves about 20 minutes a game, and the C's don't have 20 to offer (Right now Shelden and Scal would be scheduled for zero minutes in case anyone is wondering if I'm forgetting about them). I like Baby and I was excited to see him resign, but before anyone becomes shocked that there are some rumblings about playing time as the season moves on, just think how is Doc going to manage the 4/5 rotation. So how will Doc do it? (Video after the jump)
