Glen Davis is entering his fourth season with the Celtics, and during that time he’s learned a few things. The most important thing he’s learned is that he didn’t know anything.
“You go through your rookie year and you have no clue what you’re doing,” Davis said. “You go through your second year you have a little bit of understanding of what you’re doing. Your third year, you kind of know what you’re doing, but you go to your fourth year, you know what you’re doing.”
Davis figured that when he arrived in the NBA he would immediately become a core member of whatever team drafted him. As he soon discovered, that process takes time.
The NBA is a league full of specialists and mastering that one specific talent can lead to a long career of gainful employment. Davis has a number of unique talents, but perhaps his most effective physical skill is an ability to jump quickly.
At first glance, this seems like a fairly ordinary trait, but in Davis’ case that ability allows him to compensate for his lack of ideal height by simply getting to the ball quicker than taller players.
When players enter the league they are judged by a rather harsh set of criteria: height, weight, wingspan, etc. By those objective measures Davis didn’t add up, which is why he slid into the second round of the draft despite a productive career at LSU. But throw in a uniquely exceptional ability to get after the ball and suddenly his other talents are allowed to flourish, which has made him an effective NBA player.
“It motivated me a lot knowing that I’m better then the players that were drafted before me,” Davis said. “But the NBA has their way of critiquing players and I’m just glad that Doc [Rivers] gave me a chance, and I don’t want to let him down.”
Davis has become a key piece of the Celtics puzzle, perhaps even a contender for Sixth Man of the Year if he can put it all together this season.
Over the years he has added a face-up jump shot to his offensive game that already included a variety of low-post moves from his college days, but it is that singular ability to play harder, and faster, than some of his opponents that has made him such an integral player.
“Me and Nate [Robinson] are those guys that you don’t understand how they do it, but they do it,” Davis said. “He’s little and I’m an undersized power forward. I can’t really jump high, but I play big. Nate is a small guard but he plays huge.”
In that way Davis and Robinson have much in common with two other players who will comprise the Celtics second unit: Delonte West and Marquis Daniels. 
It’s no surprise then that Davis (second round), West and Robinson (late first round) and Daniels (undrafted) entered the league somewhat below the radar.
They are all misfits in one way or another. Not so much under-scouted, but over-scouted in that the people who make decisions about basketball players knew all too well the things they couldn’t do, but failed to appreciate the unique things that helped them compensate.
Robinson? Too small, obviously, but aided by incomparable athletic ability that allows him to play much bigger than his height.
“That’s what separates him from most of the small guards that have played,” Rivers said. “Muggsy [Bogues] had a good body as well, but he couldn’t jump. Spud [Webb] could jump but didn’t have the body. Nate has the combination.
Delonte West? No real position, but throw in a tenacious energy and suddenly being good at lots of things, but not great at any one thing, allows him to be an effective combo guard.
“I think energy is a skill,” Rivers said. “Either you have energy or you don’t. There’s great shooters and great skill guys and then there’s great energy guys.”
Marquis Daniels? Like West, a player without a defined position, but with an ability play at two speeds that allows him to use his skills against different types of wings.
“He’s deceptive,” Ray Allen said. “When you’re in college you learn to play hard all the time. When I got to the league I tried to go one speed and then I learned to play two different speeds. That’s how he is. You might not think he’s going to shoot it, he lulls you into it, and then he shoots the ball and your hands are down.”
The Celtics bench, aided by either Shaquille or Jermaine O’Neal, both cast off by various teams because they are no longer the players they once were, may very well hold the key to the Celtics season.
For Shaq and Jermaine O’Neal, it is now a matter of adapting. For the others, it has always been about survival. Somehow, this strange collection of talent needs to become a coherent and effective unit.
“I think it’s important for us to have a deeper rotation,” Rivers said last week. “Last year there were times we had to stay at eight [players], we were almost at seven at times. To get there I really think we need a bench and we need a great bench. To have an honest chance at winning this whole thing, our bench has to be huge during the regular season. They’re going to have to win games.”
Rivers needs to utilize his bench in two ways. First, to soak up minutes during the long grind of the regular season. Second, the bench needs to take the pressure off the starters. Too often last season the reserves either failed to hold a lead that was entrusted to them by starters, or conversely, help dig them out of a hole.
Within those two groups Rivers can mix and match at times, but rather than play a complimentary role, it’s almost as if there are two distinct units.
The starters have been together long enough to be a known commodity. Incorporating one, or both, of the O’Neal’s into the process will take some time, but should be relatively seamless.
The second unit, however, will potentially play a much different game than the starters. In Robinson, they have a scoring guard in a point guard’s body and in West they have an effective combo guard who can play several roles. The two seem to have already developed a knack for playing off each other and allowing the other to shine.
Daniels brings a slashing element to the wing and an ability to get to the basket, while Davis brings all-out energy and the promise that on any given night he can change the flow of the game.
It took Davis until his fourth year to really know what’s going on. That’s not a slow learning curve, that’s just being honest. The Celtics don’t have years for their bench to figure it all out, they have to learn on the fly.
How they develop together, from band of misfits to cohesive unit, may well tell the tale this season.