Baby Crying Already

September 29, 2010

NEWPORT, R.I. - All is not quiet in the seaside resort known as Celtics training camp. Leave it to a Big Baby to disrupt the early team-building exercises. On the first day of training camp, Glen Davis sounded concerned about his playing time.

"I've got to find out what my role is," he said yesterday. "With Rasheed [Wallace] last year, I had to become a center. Now, I don't know. Do I go back to playing the 4? We'll see. It's difficult, because as a player, you kind of don't understand where they're going or what they're doing.



The Celtics added Jermaine O'Neal and Shaquille O'Neal to the frontcourt mix this season, as center Kendrick Perkins recovers from offseason knee surgery. "No matter what I do, I can play great, it's still not enough," said Davis, who averaged 20 minutes and 7.3 points in 24 playoff games last season. "I'm just here to help the team wherever possible, any way I can. Whenever I find my role, I'll do it to the max, the only way I can."

Coach Doc Rivers shed some light on Davis's situation ."I'm not even worried about Glen Davis," he said. "I think he's living up to his name [Baby]. I didn't even hear it. Someone just told me. I'm not that concerned. "Let me put it like this: If Baby doesn't know his role by now, he's going to be sitting down a lot. I'll just leave it that simple. "I've told him that before. His role has been the same for three years now. It's the same. I think he likes us talking about him. That's Glen."

Last season, Davis got into a fight with a childhood friend two days before the season opener and broke his right thumb. The Celtics suspended him, but the injury forced Davis to miss most of the first two months of the season. The Celtics have not had a Delonte West-type player on the roster since, well, West himself was traded away in 2007. "Delonte is huge for us," said Celtics captain Paul Pierce, "because we lose a guy like Tony Allen - he's our defensive stopper. We expect him to stop 2 guards, as well as play 1 guard. "We haven't had anyone like that since he left. So I'm excited to get him. I wanted Delonte from the start."

But West, who was re-signed by the Celtics as a free agent early this month, said he is not the same player who spent his first three NBA seasons in Boston. "I've grown, I've learned how to win, I've added a lot to my game," West said. "I know what I need to do to help a team win. I know who I am out there. "And I haven't even reached my prime yet. That, to me, is the scary thing about it. I think Boston got me at the right time. "I've definitely learned the point guard duties, how to get the ball to our guys, and also to slow down a little bit.

"When I started, I was rushing, I always understood the game but I was playing a little too fast. I kind of found my tempo and, like I said, I've worked night in and night out to become a complete player. I really don't have any weaknesses." But West will not be eligible to play for the first 10 games of the season - he will serve an NBA suspension stemming from weapons charge brought against him in September 2009 - so the backup shooting guard role will be contested by Marquis Daniels and Von Wafer

Pierce is enthusiastic about Wafer "I think he's going to be an X-factor type of guy, who can give us a lift," said Pierce. Wafer, who played in Greece (Olympiakos) and with the Dallas Mavericks last season, said he is gradually finding a rhythm. "It wasn't as tough physically as it was mentally," Wafer said of the team's first official practice yesterday. "I've just got to get in the right spots. "I'm just going to try and get in the best shape possible. I'm going to focus on trying to make the team, first. I'm just going to work hard, do what I can."

Wafer's Greek experience did not go as planned. Olympiakos had two other star foreigners in Josh Childress and Linas Kleiza. "It didn't work out like I thought it would," Wafer said.

The Celtics went through a three-hour workout at Salve Regina, then were scheduled to return last night. "We knew camp is getting prepared for the first game, and getting prepared for the playoffs," Rivers said. "I told them every day in practice is our first playoff practice, as far as I'm concerned. We were going to come back anyway. Because we've got so many guys, I thought we needed to come back. I didn't finish the practice plan I had, but that's not unusual. We stayed on things that I thought we needed to stay on longer." Said Ray Allen, "This is a special time of the year for us. I think we all dread it coming in because you've got to get your body back to playing shape. But I definitely enjoy being here."