The Baby Speaks.......

[greenbeans]

Davis has been working out daily in Houston for about a month now, doing basketball drills, conditioning, and Muay Tai boxing. He says he has dropped from 320 pounds at the end of last season to 300 and believes he can get down to 270.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball ... baby_step/

270? Yeah..sure..

[Al-Haqq]

I don't get that NBA players lose the most weight when they're NOT playing basketball. How do you put on weight when you're either playing an NBA game or practising with the team?

It really isn't hard to maintain your weight, especially if you're an athlete.

As for BB - I'm glad he's committing himself already. Good to hear.

[Kefa461]

“If I’m on a team where it’s tough to get wins, a young team, I’d love to start,’’ said Glen Davis, who made $711,517 last season. “But if it’s a championship-caliber team, I’d love to come off the bench. It depends on where I am. I’d love to come off the bench behind KG. But if not, I’d love to start, too.’’ Celtics president Danny Ainge has said a qualifying offer will be made to Davis Tuesday to ensure that he will be a restricted free agent, which gives Boston seven days to match any offer sheet. Davis is a free agent in a tough economy with a lot of unrestricted big men available. Boston Globe

One NBA general manager said Davis could maybe garner a contract paying $3 million-$4 million in the first year, while another said he’d get close to the mid-level exception (at least $5.6 million). Teams eyeing Davis also know that Boston is keenly interested, too, with matching power. But the Celtics are also over the projected luxury-tax threshold by nearly $2 million. Boston Globe




Hey Kefa, I think you are doing a great job with updates from news outlets, but could you include a link and use the quote box when doing so? It makes it easier to read. Thanks. canman

ps....I think I can do it.

[humblebum]

Here's the scenario with Davis. He knows what the Celtics are offering in terms of dollars, years, and in regards to his role on the court. And he wants a better situation with more money, security, and playing time. Ainge is allowing Davis to pursue all of his options and to try to find the best scenario for him. If the price gets too rich, which for the Celtics is probably anything beyond $3-3.5 million OR 3 years, the Celtics won't match. So, essentially it comes down to whether or not any team out there wants to go beyond the Celtics very limited offer to Davis. My guess is that one team probably will and Davis will be gone. All of the language he's using is of a man who looks at what the Celtics are offering as a second or third option. We shall see.

And I'll tell ya, Drew Gooden is becoming a more and more realistic target for the Celtics with other bigs looking to resign with their current teams (Dyess, Birdman) or pursue a bigger role elsewhere (Sheed, Zaza, Gortat). Gooden would replace the girth lost with Davis as well as posing as a more accomplished inside scorer. Defensively and mentally he's not special but he adds some positive elements with his ability to rebound and score.

[Zin5]

I don't get that NBA players lose the most weight when they're NOT playing basketball. How do you put on weight when you're either playing an NBA game or practising with the team?

It really isn't hard to maintain your weight, especially if you're an athlete.

As for BB - I'm glad he's committing himself already. Good to hear.

Actually, when you're an athlete, it's hard to maintain your weight when playing. Over the offseason you can have strict training schedules and a personal chef to make sure you're staying in shape, whereas during the season you're spending half of it on the road eating whatever and saving some of that extra energy for games.

[Gant]

And I'll tell ya, Drew Gooden is becoming a more and more realistic target for the Celtics with other bigs looking to resign with their current teams (Dyess, Birdman) or pursue a bigger role elsewhere (Sheed, Zaza, Gortat). Gooden would replace the girth lost with Davis as well as posing as a more accomplished inside scorer. Defensively and mentally he's not special but he adds some positive elements with his ability to rebound and score.

McDyess might not stay:

http://www.mlive.com/pistons/index.ssf/ ... s_for.html

However, getting McDyess back for a sixth season might be difficult.

McDyess, who turns 35 in September, came to Detroit following the Pistons' 2004 title run for a shot at a championship.

After coming up short in five consecutive seasons, McDyess acknowledged during this season's playoffs that his shot at a title might have to come with another team.

In November, McDyess was included in the Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade with Denver.

He reached a buyout agreement with the Nuggets and later re-signed with Detroit.

However, McDyess discovered just how coveted he was between those transactions, with just about every playoff contender trying to convince him to sign.

Despite his age, most of those teams will come calling again this summer

[humblebum]

I don't think there's any question that the Celtics will pursue Dyess and it's easy to see why. His skill set and size would be a big plus for the Celtics. However, Marc Spears was pretty certain that Dyess was going to be back with Detroit... Not sure if you caught the segment on comcast on draft night but he was pretty adamant that Dyess was going to stay in Detroit because of family ties and his lack of interest in "chasing" a ring. And if I'm not mistaken, Spears spent a bit of time with Dyess in Denver and still continues to have a relationship with him so...

But I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised

[AlCelticFan]

I read the article, and it really sounds like Big Baby is starting to feel like there's a good chance he won't be here next season. That's just my intuition on it.

[spf211]

Drew Gooden? Shoot me.

The Celtics are doing what they need to do in letting the market set the price for Big Baby.

[ParticleMan]

Davis is a smart guy, and he's playing this smart. He's diong everything right this offseason to leverage his nice playoff run. He's saying all the rights things, that he'd like to be back as a backup but it's a business and he wants to start.

But I think he would still sign here if we made him a reasonable offer, given that he has a nice role here. I think that a deal similar but a bit less than what Perk got might do it. Given that Powe isn't going to be a factor next season, that's reasonable value for BBD. And we would still need another backup big, so if Dice wants to jump aboard, we'd have room for him too.

[humblebum]

If Davis is truly getting his weight down to 270 though he'd likely be worth a near full MLE type deal. Davis at 270 would be much better on the perimeter offensively and defensively. So just re-thinking this a bit... if he's that committed to his fitness then I'd think that Ainge and co. might sing a different tune in contract negotiations.

And frankly, my opinion of Davis would change pretty significantly under that scenario.

[humblebum]

Well what if Davis gets a full MLE offer, Sheed, Gortat and Zaza go elsewhere for more dollars and Dyess and Birdman resign with their respective teams? What do you think about Gooden then?

And essentially, that's my point. I think that the PF-C targets in free agency are all reasonably tough gets considering that the Celtics are only offering a backup job (with few touches offensively, mind you) at short years and potentially small money.

I'm just not of the belief that the Celtics honestly want to spend the full MLE on a guy unless they believe it's a bargain. And they don't seem to want to tie up their salary structure long-term with role players on long contracts. So that just simply doesn't leave many good options out there.

Hey, maybe this will be another offseason where the Celtics pick up a "ring chaser" like PJ Brown or "a guy looking to restore his reputation i.e. trying to earn a big contract with a season of good play" like Posey. Maybe the Celtics will get a Grant Hill and a Dyess for the LLE and about $3.5 million, respectively. Heck maybe they'll get Marion on a one year full-MLE and convince him that playing here behind Paul and KG will restore his value among league execs and he can parlay that into a longer term deal next season. Those would certainly be two of my top options if I were Ainge but those probably aren't the most likely scenarios.

But given the "near disaster scenario" where those guys aren't available I think Gooden could add something as a more realistic and affordable option.

[Rocky5000]

I thought you didn't have to use the MLE to resign your own players. If someone offers Davis the MLE, we can match that without using any of our MLE. Our luxury tax would get pretty big, but it doesn't put us out of the running for other FAs. In my opinion, Davis won't get an MLE offer. The economy is in too poor of shape for teams to roll the dice by offering a big deal. He probably reups in Boston for 2-3 years.

[GuyClinch]

I told you guys he was well over 300lbs. <g> Anyway its harder to lose weight during the season because you eat out alot. The higher paid players sometimes have personal chefs that specialize in making healthier and tastier food.. So they can lose weight easily too.. Not to mention alot of them have trainers and such they work with in the offseason. Those guys nowadays are WAY better then they used to be. It makes a huge difference.

[elrod enchilada]

Big Baby at 270 with range out to the 3 point line is a legit combo forward who can defend a majority of the 3s in the league. Danny will re-sign that Big Baby.

[joneb]

Big Baby already possessed fantastic footwork for a man of his size, and I'd imagine that his pursuit of kick boxing will only improve that footwork. And his shedding of 30 pounds would really benefit his explosiveness. And if he expands the range of his perimeter game, it will give him the opportunity to user that improved footwork and explosiveness to beat his man off the dribble. His commitment to the improvement of his game is quite praiseworthy. Hopefully we can get him re-signed so the the new and improved version of Big Baby is helping the Celtics win games and not some other team.

[vct33]

It's amazing how ass-backwards everything is. People are anticipating that Baby will get an offer starting at $4 mil - $5 mil per year. Meanwhile, there is talk of Varejao getting upwards of $8 mil per. Poor Big Baby is twice the player of Varejao but he'll get half the money.

[Slartibartfast]

It's amazing how ass-backwards everything is. People are anticipating that Baby will get an offer starting at $4 mil - $5 mil per year. Meanwhile, there is talk of Varejao getting upwards of $8 mil per. Poor Big Baby is twice the player of Varejao but he'll get half the money.

I don't know about NBA gms, vct, but I'd much rather have Varejao. The Brazillian's a great rebounder and a pretty good finisher around the hoop. He's also a solid defender.

Big Baby's developing into a pretty good scorer, but his inability to rebound and finish inside is a major drawback for a guy who plays the back-up 5 spot, at least on this team. I don't really see that changing, even with significant weight loss. He's certainly not capable of guarding most 3's as elrod suggested.

[vct33]

I don't know about NBA gms, vct, but I'd much rather have Varejao. The Brazillian's a great rebounder and a pretty good finisher around the hoop. He's also a solid defender.

I have to respectfully disagree. Andy is a strong rebounder. He does finish well when he can actually catch the ball. However, he has terrible hands and mishandles a lot of passes from LeBron. Also, he is a pathetic defender. He tricks people into thinking he can play defense because he hustles around poking at balls, diving on the floor, taking charges and making his big hair flop around. He is a terrible post defender and a subpar pick-n-roll defender.

I'd take Baby over Andy and not think twice about it. And I think I can safely say that I've watched the two players more than anybody else on this site.

[billfromBoston]

REALITY CHECK:

The season ended less than 2 months ago - sorry, but Davis would have been hard-pressed to lose 20lbs in 2 months and he FOR SURE isn't getting anywhere near 270 this off-season - go do some basic google search work for diet and exorcise....it'll take Davis a FULL 12 months of solid diet and excersice work to come close to losing 50lbs of fat - it just doesn't happen like that.

Davis will be 290-300lbs starting training camp - he's not going to turn into a physical specimen over the course of 6 months - look how hard Perkins worked...took him 3 years of dedicated work.

Davis is blowing sunshine up everyone's ass heading into free agency...Glad he's working, will believe he has the work ethic to get into real athlete shape when I see it...