When you look at Rasheed Wallace what do you see?
•A 6-foot-11 player who shoots 3’s and owns a volcanic temper?
•A versatile big man who can defend power forwards and centers?
•A 14-year veteran who has logged over 1,000 games and is coming off a down season statistically?
•The best value for the Celtics to use their mid-level exception?
None of those reactions are wrong, necessarily, but it’s the final choice that seems to be at play here, and it’s probably the correct one, because the case for bringing Rasheed Wallace to the Celtics is relatively simple.
Let’s start on the court. Zach Lowe at Celtics Hub made the statistical argument that Wallace is declining as a player and it’s hard to argue with that analysis. No, Wallace isn’t as good as he was five years ago when he was an important piece -- more important than he has been given credit for -- of the Pistons world championship team. But he’s still effective as a defensive rebounder and shot blocker and it’s worth remembering the dysfunctional mess that Detroit became last season.
The Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade was a bust, so much so that the Pistons basically asked the Answer to go away late in the season after he objected to coming off the bench. Recent reports out of Detroit had first-year coach Michael Curry feuding with Rip Hamilton. Not coincidentally, Curry is now the ex-coach.
Wallace did his best work in Larry Brown’s structured “Play the Right Way” system, which took advantage of his skills, and didn’t ask him to be something that he is not; namely a high-volume scorer. That wouldn’t be a problem in Boston where he could easily move into the latter act of his career as a sixth man.
As for his temper, it’s been fairly well-documented that what sets Sheed off is chaos, be it refs who lose control of the game, coaches who lose control of the locker room or media stuff. The media stuff (along with the outbursts usually directed at referees) has helped paint a negative portrait of Wallace, yet you rarely hear teammates complaining about playing with him.
In the anti-chaos department, he has a kindred spirit in Kevin Garnett, and the word is that KG has lobbied for his friend to come to Boston. The Celtics believe their locker room is as strong as any in the NBA and that no player, particularly no veteran player who understands how things work in the league, is going to be a problem.
But the off the court stuff is far less important than what Wallace can still do on the floor and here’s where he can be a huge asset for the Celtics, even if his production continues to decline. In a best-case scenario Wallace logs 25 minutes or so a night backing up Garnett and Kendrick Perkins. Wallace remains a good defender, someone whom Garnett said once was like, “looking in the mirror,” when he played against him. His shot-blocking presence would also be a huge addition to the second unit’s defense, which did not have any shot blocking presence last season.
Offensively, Wallace steps out and shoots 3’s as well as any big man in the league, the caveat there being that he doesn’t shoot it that well (he’s been between 35 and 36 percent the last four seasons). But having an outside shooting big man is a huge part of how the Celtics play and something that was missing during the playoffs without Garnett.
In Wallace, the Celtics would also have the perfect contingency plan if Garnett’s knees aren’t ready to take the pounding or if Perkins’ shoulder acts up, and as an added bonus he is said to be drawing interest from Dallas, San Antonio and Orlando. Keeping him away from one of those teams would also benefit the C’s.
If you assume that players like Anderson Varejao, Hedo Turkoglu, Trevor Ariza, Ron Artest and Lamar Odom are going to get more than the mid-level exception, then Wallace represents the best bang for the buck on a short-term deal. The question is for how many years, and as the Celtics let James Posey walk over a fourth year last season, one wouldn’t think they would want to lock up a 34-year-old until 2013.
An argument can be made that it would be wiser to spread the exception to two players to fill
RSS Center
