You know, just about everyone loves Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Leon Powe. How can you not? I mean, two guys drafted in the second round but have worked so hard that both are now better players and more valuable than Yi Jianlian, a guy taken sixth overall in the 2007 NBA draft.
But as valuable as Powe and Baby are in general, they are particularly valuable in one role: coming off the bench fresh to push around and wear down the other team’s starters or to push around and have their way with the other team’s scrubs. Expecting Baby to go 40 minutes against Dwight Howard and hope for anything other than something close to a draw is misguided. Yet there is nothing misguided about expecting baby to come in for 12-16 minutes and just be himself, by which I mean push, shove, hustle, play very good position defense, and do all of the other little things that totally annoy another’s team’s starters, especially if the other team’s starters are already sick of dealing with the likes of KG, Perk, and Sheed.
This is why I’m encouraged by reports that even if Baby signs on for just one year with DA GREEN, he’ll remain a restricted free agent with the team. How great would it be to have him as the fourth big for the rest of the KG Era? Sure, I'm a little bummed about Leon. But Danny wants to start the 2009-10 season with 15 healthy players ready to stomp on the rest of the league.
I get this. I'll always be thankful for Leon's contribution to banner 17. Hell, he was MVP of game 2 of the Finals, forcing Phil Jackson to discuss his impact in the post-game presser. It really doesn't get any better than that.
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