Vin Baker

["hironaka@xxxxxxxxx"<hironaka@xxxxxxxxx>]

The fact is Obie went with Antoine (or Walt) at center in 
crunch time last night. It shows what a poor match Vin 
Baker has been for this team. Pretty much a disaster.

At least to the extent I had hoped for, Baker has been 
reliable as a low-post scorer if he gets the ball. Give 
him eight shots in the paint and he'll probably score ten 
points consistently from the field and line, I'd wager.  

Baker would add some points too if he put himself in 
position to take some of Battie's 15-foot face up 
jumpers. Baker has hardly taken any shots from greater 
than five feet away, which is very surprising considering 
the type of player he used to be and the type of player 
Obie seemingly wants him to be. 

Some people have said I should not compare Baker to 
Parish or Walton. I assume it wasn't clear, but I was 
talking about a specific thing: low post coordination and 
effectiveness.

Obviously I wouldn't trade five Vin Bakers for one season 
of Bill Walton...or any other Hall of Famer. That's not 
the point I wanted to debate, in bringing that up.

As much as I hoped for, Baker has considerable technique 
and touch in the paint. It seems ages ago, but he was a 
four-time All Star. 

All of the above must seem like a trivial point for me to 
harp on, but having relied for many years on boxscores 
and these mailing lists while living abroad, I think its 
very misleading to portray his performances as terrible.

To me, the definition of terrible is when you pray a guy 
doesn't shoot, or see a guy give up serious points on 
defense. Or a series of stupid, stupid fouls that none of 
us would have made. I don't think that's been the case.

Because he's a bad fit, I'm not sure how he performs can 
change his situation. Last night was the latest example. 
Battie gets kicked out, so Obie goes with McCarty and 
Walker at center during crunch time. 

Did Vin Baker play poorly or leave the game because of 
foul trouble? Was he giving up position or getting scored 
and dunked on? No. He actually played his usual game, 
only to sit and watch when the game was on the line.

In the end, the guy is a 17 mpg, decent contributor. He's 
a 2Q and 3Q substitute. I don't think he's hurting the 
team with that amount of minutes, or in general.

And I do know there are more underperforming max 
contracts out there than you'd think. Phoenix has four 
max contracts, signed from now through eternity.

Gugliota clears the cap in two years. Backing up Walker, 
he'd play even fewer minutes than Vin Baker plays now, 
but maybe that's the kind of bottom fishing that can get 
Boston out of Chris Wallace's mistake. 

Until we bite that bullet, I say we cheer on Vin and hope 
he ups his trade value (from zero) or helps us go an 
extra round in the playoffs. No sense in bashing his game 
or his character (bash the GM instead). From what I've 
seen, its not as much Baker's fault as some people 
clearly think. 





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