Big Baby Can Ball!

[cisco]

Now has a jumpshot, which helped him to beat his man off the dribble and drive to the hoop, a little inside game, nice passing, nice defense, fadeaway jumpshot? . This kid is ballin right now!

[Avalanche]

Davis has been playing great, and surprisingly out doing leon by a large margin of late

he has been doing a lot of different things on the court for us, and i hope other fans have noticed too.. the guy has obviously worked hard to improve his game

question is, if he can keep it up... is leon trade bait?

[Triple M]

Even when he was struggling there were a lot of small things he was doing well, I'm glad that he has put it all together but the most important thing going forward is consistency. That is the issue with our bench right now we are getting solid production from the reserves similar to Nov/Early Dec but they need to keep it up and not slump like they did in late dec/early Jan.

[Scalamental]

It's funny, last season someone asked who would you rather have; big baby or powe? And I was convinced that baby's quick feet and basketball smarts put him leagues over powe. Especially against games like detroit and the spurs, where baby came big. Right now baby is playing great ball, and powe isn't as productive as last season. But who knows, maybe baby will disappear again like last years playoffs, and powe will come in to make clutch shots off the bench.

[GregB]

It's funny, last season someone asked who would you rather have; big baby or powe? And I was convinced that baby's quick feet and basketball smarts put him leagues over powe. Especially against games like detroit and the spurs, where baby came big. Right now baby is playing great ball, and powe isn't as productive as last season. But who knows, maybe baby will disappear again like last years playoffs, and powe will come in to make clutch shots off the bench.

, Me too. I have jumped fences on the Baby/Powe preference many time. I guess I say go with the Hot hand. But, if baby can continue to hit his jump shots. Powe will have a hard time finding playing time. Now I thought I would never utter these words in my entire life. But, Leon is lucky Scal is injured right now.

[GreenGrizz]

I know he is very talented from his LSU years. He is required to run far from the paint area and set screens. That's where he loses his energy. He weights near 300. I hope Doc knows what he is doing.

[cisco]

Been on the BBD bandwagon since day one. I watched him in college and I thought if he could translate his game to the NBA, he'd be a great piece for the Celtics bench. He has the good Antoine Walker's skillset (minus the 3 pt shot--- which is good). I wasn't discouraged when he was struggling because he's still only in his 2nd year. Remember, big men usually take a lot longer to develop and Perk didn't even see the court until his 3rd year and BBD has shown that he is steadily improving.
I believe he was supposed to be a first round pick. If I remember correctly, Detroit told him that they would take him in the first round, but reneged. Well, their loss is our gain.

[return2glory]

BBD has ball. If anyone ever saw him play at LSU, you would now this. I liked BBD a loit last season. I was a little down on him this year but he has turned things around over the last 3 weeks.

One thing that I've noticed about BBD is that he looks in better shape to him compared to the first 30 games. He looks lighter, quicker, faster, and he is jumping higher that I've ever seen him jump before. I'd still like to see Big Baby lose another 10-15 pounds.

Big Baby Looks lighter. Here is a picture of BBD vs the Kings.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/bask ... road_back/

[cfan79]

Its strange that so many people are saying they love Baby when just a short time ago they were riding me out on a rail for putting a Powe/Baby poll. Powe won the poll easily. I don't blame you though I thought Powe was head and shoulders better as well.

[cisco]

Its strange that so many people are saying they love Baby when just a short time ago they were riding me out on a rail for putting a Powe/Baby poll. Powe won the poll easily. I don't blame you though I thought Powe was head and shoulders better as well.

So many people? There are only 8 responses in this thread. The people who didn't like Baby probably still don't and won't acknowledge his fine play or respond to this thread.

[return2glory]

Its strange that so many people are saying they love Baby when just a short time ago they were riding me out on a rail for putting a Powe/Baby poll. Powe won the poll easily. I don't blame you though I thought Powe was head and shoulders better as well.

So many people? There are only 8 responses in this thread. The people who didn't like Baby probably still don't and won't acknowledge his fine play or respond to this thread.

LMAO.

[cloverleaf]

BBD has ball. If anyone ever saw him play at LSU, you would now this. I liked BBD a loit last season. I was a little down on him this year but he has turned things around over the last 3 weeks.

One thing that I've noticed about BBD is that he looks in better shape to him compared to the first 30 games. He looks lighter, quicker, faster, and he is jumping higher that I've ever seen him jump before. I'd still like to see Big Baby lose another 10-15 pounds.

Big Baby Looks lighter. Here is a picture of BBD vs the Kings.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/bask ... road_back/

He's sure got all of the Antoine mannerisms down in that pic, r2g--thanks!

[billfromBoston]

These threads continue to piss me off every time I read them...Davis has had his best month as a pro to be sure: 18 mins 6.9 pts, 3.9 rebs, 48%fg...I'm happy he's finally had an uptick in production and he has clearly looked the best he ever has this month...

However...

Leon Powe already has a resume that includes a full seasons worth of what Davis has just now done, yet somehow Powe is now "exposed" or "done" while Davis has "arrived?"

How the **** does that logic work?

Powe's been in a slump, but he's picked up his defense and rebounding while his offense has been off and in his WORST month as a pro has still been able to squeeze 14mpg, 5 pts and 4.5 rbs, 38%fg during his worst stretch of basketball as a Celtic - numbers that equal every month that Davis has played in his Celtics career.

Davis/Powe month-by-month two year totals:

MPG PTS RBS FG%
8/4 3.5/2.7 2.2/1.3 44/53
15/5 4.9/3.0 4.3/1.6 47/60
13/17 5.3/8.4 2.2/4.4 67/65
14/18 4.6/9.5 2.5/5.1 46/58
13/15 3.5/8.1 2.2/4.2 45/53
18/22 5.7/13.7 5.2/6.3 42/58
16/20 2.0/13 3.0/4.0 16/62
17/17 4.3/6.7 3.1/4.1 39/53
15/13 3.2/6.3 3.0/3.6 34/52
18/14 6.9/4.9 3.9/4.5 48/38

They've played 10 months of basketball with the Celtics together and over that time Davis has scored more points in three months, and out-rebounded him in two months, while only out-shooting him in the most recent month....the trend down in Powe's scoring productivity over the past 3 months has been a direct result of less attempts from the field and his shooting percentage fell below 50% for the first time EVER in that time span.

All my frustration with Davis has been directly linked to his inefficiency in with the usage he gets and my argument in favor of Powe was always predicated on past performance relative to the notion that if it had to be one or the other, who would it be.

Yet, here we are and after Glen Davis' most productive month of his career people in this debate are ready to **** Powe for having a bad month, when it has taken Davis 9 months to figure out how to reach a level of consistency in his game that even approaches Powe's career contribution to date - that doesn't make sense.

I am not here advocating for Davis to lose PT or for Powe to get more run - merit for run is begot by productivity and Davis is doing it right now. But considering the track records of the two players, (and yes I know stats aren't everything, but they are something,) I think it is extremely short-sighted to be calling Davis' recent play proof-positive of him turning a corner or that Powe has somehow "reached a ceiling", been "figured out" or any of that.

We have two developing players working on new elements of their game: Davis is beginning to refine a jump shot - which isn't there yet by average - and Powe is working on his post play - which has also been a work-in-progress this season. The focus on niche roles over the more all-around game each played last year certainly has much to do with each having struggled at different times this season.

Congratulations to Glen Davis for stepping up recently and showing that he is capable of more, but if you write off Powe - the player who has a longer track history of success - then you're just setting yourself up to be embarrassed or confused when these short terms trends alter. I fully support the notion that Davis could simply continue to improve each month while Powe continues to spiral downward, but past history does not support this with any evidence...it is more likely based off body of work that Powe will make adjustments and continue to find success - Davis' track history is not indicative of any trending, but I am hoping that repetition and a more narrow focus in role will lead to more consistency.

...the "Kendrick Perkins is a back-up", "this team doesn't have enough depth to win a title" and " Ray Allen is done, he's too old." fan-clubs say hello to all knee-jerk, reactions to short-term outcomes that fly in the face of long-term trends...there is a difference between debating on who is or was currently the "better" player based off performance and speculating into future productivity - all based off what each has accomplished.

GM's don't make decisions based off high-light reels, they pay for "bird in the hand" visual production and consistency. Here's to hoping that Glen Davis will continue this newly found trend, but acting as if people are wrong for being skeptical when a player has never done it before nor shown over a decent amount of time, (190+ games) that it was going to happen, is argument for arguments sake...debate relies on fact, not feeling...

...Come April, should I slam everybody in the "pro Davis" camp if Powe has returned to his historical norms? I don't plan on it...just as I don't plan on bashing Davis if he can SHOW that he can be a consistently reliable player in his role - so far he has one month in 10 of doing so....

...

[cfan79]

So many people? There are only 8 responses in this thread. The people who didn't like Baby probably still don't and won't acknowledge his fine play or respond to this thread.

Since no one, but Knicks fans voted for Baby in the poll that's 8 more people that were giving him props. Admit it, us fans fall in love very easily.

[Kids Are Alright]

Fine bench player is Baby

[cisco]

Give it a rest Bill. Still typing those 10+ paragraph posts trying to prove Powe is better eh?

In another post you said you have no problem giving credit where credit is due, but now that Baby is getting credit for his good play you can't stand it? LMAO!

This is a thread honoring Big Baby's good play. This has nothing to do with Powe. You can start a thread honoring Powe's poor play if you want to.

[return2glory]

Give it a rest Bill. Still typing those 10+ paragraph posts trying to prove Powe is better eh?

In another post you said you have no problem giving credit where credit is due, but now that Baby is getting credit for his good play you can't stand it? LMAO!

This is a thread honoring Big Baby's good play. This has nothing to do with Powe. You can start a thread honoring Powe's poor play if you want to.

Exactly. Only 2 or 3 people in the thread mentioned Powe and BFB goes crazy trying to defend Powe. This thread is about giving BBD some props for playing well as of late.

[Kids Are Alright]

Good outing by Baby and lousy outing by Powe against the Wolves, IMO. Baby ran out of gas in the 4th, he's not built for anything beyond the bench time at this point until he drops maybe 40 pounds.

Powe has stopped taking shots, he's chucking the ball and it's getting really tiring to watch.

[cisco]

Good outing by Baby and lousy outing by Powe against the Wolves, IMO. Baby ran out of gas in the 4th, he's not built for anything beyond the bench time at this point until he drops maybe 40 pounds.

Powe has stopped taking shots, he's chucking the ball and it's getting really tiring to watch.

I doubt the Celtics want BBD to lose 40 lbs. He needs his bulk for defend bigger players. Besides, he's not going to be more than a bench player anyway. He only played big minutes because of KG's absence. BBD at halftime stating that he's just a role player trying to fill in lets me know that he knows it too.

[UGA Hayes]

I think now, or at least in the near future, would be a good time to trade him actually. IMO he is not reliable to stay in shape and I still like Powe better.