In the end the anticipated bidding war for Glen Big Baby Davis never really materialized, and if there was going to be one the Celtics did a good enough job of making sure other teams knew it would be a waste of their time to start one in the first place.
Big Baby returned to the Celtics on a two-year deal worth about $6 million, which is a decent chunk of change for a third-year former second-round pick, but not quite what everyone had in mind after Davis knocked down the winning shot in Game 4 against Orlando and filled in admirably for Kevin Garnett during the end of the regular season and the playoffs.
Had this been three or four years ago, some team would have undoubtedly given Davis some serious mid-level money, but it’s not 2006 anymore and the market for undersized power forwards who don’t rebound particularly well is not that deep.
To that end, score one for Danny Ainge, who refused to overreact to all the Davis speculation and held firm in his conviction that he would be able to re-sign him at a reasonable rate, which he did. Timing is everything for Davis and had he come along a few years earlier or been chosen fives pick higher in the draft and received guaranteed first round money we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“It’s been a lot of different things,” Davis said with a laugh during his welcome home press conference Monday.
“It’s been a pain,” Ainge said in response.
“It’s been tough,” Davis agreed.
“Look at all the gray hairs you’ve given me,” Ainge said.
It was OK to joke around after the deal was finally done, but Davis had something of an angst-filled free agent experience. The whole did-he-or-didn’t-he Twitter thing is really beside the point. Davis expected a different outcome and he was clearly frustrated at how it played out.
Yes, it’s about money, but it’s also about feeling like your contributions are valued and to that end, he got a crash course in NBA Economics in the post-crash world.
“There was a point in time when I thought I wasn’t going to come back,” Davis said. “I was telling my girlfriend, we’ve got to pack. You know, time to go. And we hate packing. It’s so funny how things can change so quickly, but I’m happy to be back here.”
Regardless of the how and why, Davis and the other new addition, Shelden Williams, complete the Celtics frontcourt reshaping that began in earnest once Leon Powe injured his knee and Mikki Moore proved to be not a lot better than Patrick O’Bryant. The Celtics now have six legitimate frontcourt players, which is three more than Doc Rivers had during the playoffs.
“We feel like we have one of the best froncourts in all of basketball,” Ainge said. “We have a great deal of depth. We don’t just feel like these are guys we can have in the short-term.”
Ainge’s statement also included Williams, who through no fault of his own wound up going fifth in the 2006 draft to a Hawks team that was convinced it needed size and not a guard like, say, Brandon Roy, who went sixth. That’s when things all went wrong for the one-time Duke All-American.
When it turned out that Williams wasn’t a long-term solution, the Hawks used their third pick the following year to take Al Horford—rather than Mike Conley—the third straight draft where they chose size over a point guard. But that’s the Hawks.
Thanks to Atlanta’s scouting miss, Williams has earned over $9 million in his three seasons in the NBA despite playing fewer games than all of the other lottery picks that year except for O’Bryant, Saer Sene and J.J. Redick, which puts him in a far different position than the one Davis is in, both financially and in terms of expectations.
The Celtics will be Williams’ fourth team in four seasons and while he hasn’t shown much offensively, if he hits the defensive glass at the same rate he has shown throughout his wanderlust career and blocks a shot or two, then he will be a decent reserve at the veterans minimum.
“It’s a road that I had never been down before until now, being able to stay sane throughout the whole process,” Williams said. “Being a competitor, you always want to compete. I still have that drive.”
But Monday was mainly about Davis, and while it took longer than he may have liked, this has a chance to work out beautifully for him in the long term. For this season and next he gets a chance to be an important part of what should be a championship contender, which will provide ample opportunity for him to prove himself again and again on the big stage.
By 2011, the NBA – and hopefully the rest of the world – should have a better idea of where the market forces are headed. At 25 years old, Davis will still be young enough to cash in if he continues to develop his mid-range game.
“He’s young,” Ainge said. “I remember being young. I have six kids who are young. I tried to talk with Glen and explain the big picture, but it’s tough. You’re living in the moment and from one day to the next it can be a rollercoaster.”
That was an accurate summation of Big Baby’s life the last few months. After his accelerated rise from relative obscurity to his agonizing summer, the Celtics and Davis are hoping things settle down now.
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