Peter May on Baker, via ESPN.com

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/may_peter/1450467.html
<http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/may_peter/1450467.html> 

Celtics not getting money's worth from Baker

By Peter May
Special to ESPN.com	
BOSTON -- You'd have to look far and wide -- or somewhere other than where
Michael Jordan <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=175>
appears -- to find a player subjected to more exhibition-season scrutiny
than the Boston Celtics <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/clubhouse?team=bos> '
Vin Baker <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=1279> .
Part of it, of course, comes with the territory. Baker makes big money, has
been an NBA All-Star, desperately wants to be one again and has devoted
himself to that end since arriving in Boston following the big summer deal
with Seattle. He has lost weight, worked hard at practice and said all the
right things. His former bosses in Seattle have all wished him well in a
news conference.
But part of the attention is also needlessly premature, given that the NBA
season hasn't started yet. He is new to everything. He is a man who likes to
play inside who happens to have joined a team that fires 3-pointers with
impunity. He is in shape.
Still, there are early warning signs that are troubling for Baker and the
Celtics. With the regular season starting in less than a week, he has yet to
establish himself as anything other than a foul-plagued reserve, unable to
unseat Tony Battie
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3176>  from the
starting lineup.
In a numbing three-game stretch, Baker had more fouls (15 in 47 minutes)
than he had points and rebounds combined. He has been bothered by a sore
right ankle, which he said has hindered his lateral movement. He has been
slow to integrate himself into the offense -- and vice versa. After the
Celtics' second exhibition game, or nearly two weeks into the preseason,
Celtics coach Jim O'Brien admitted he had not yet designed any plays for
Baker.
On Thursday night against Dallas, Baker had five points and four rebounds in
19 minutes. That constitutes a decent game at this point. At one point
during the game, graphics appeared on the television screen showing that
Baker's numbers during the exhibition season last year were not all that
different from his exhibition season numbers this year. That was the
basketball version of damning with faint praise. 
We can't bludgeon Rick Pitino for this one. (Although, one of the players
dealt to Seattle, Vitaly Potapenko
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3106> , had come to
Boston for a No. 1 draft pick in 1999 with which the Celtics could have
chosen either Andre Miller
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3331>  or Shawn
Marion <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3332> . That
was Pitino at his finest.) This deal was consummated after the Celtics
realized they had no chance of re-signing Rodney Rogers
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=1280> , the player
the basketball staff really wanted.
You don't have to be a mind reader to know that O'Brien wasn't all that
enthused about this deal. He has said on a number of occasions -- sometimes
unsolicited -- that he simply wanted back the same group that advanced to
the conference finals last spring. The key piece there was Rogers, a free
agent, along with another free agent, Erick Strickland
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3140> .
But owner-out-the-door Paul Gaston took a page from corporate America's
Blueprint for Sales and stripped the Celtics bone dry. He would not allow
the Celtics to offer Rogers anything more than the veteran minimum of $1
million. Management cited the luxury tax as the prime concern, which was
only partly the truth. Another key reason was making the team lean for the
new owners. The luxury tax argument collapsed once the Baker deal was made
because the Celtics will be walking a thin, luxury tax line for years now
with three players -- Baker, Paul Pierce
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3253>  and Antoine
Walker <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3112>  --
making maximum money. But that's not Gaston's problem anymore.
But it is O'Brien's. And it is Chris Wallace's and Leo Papile's. The latter
two are the team's general manager and personnel director, respectively.
They were frequently trotted out during the Pitino era to endorse or justify
some really hideous trade or draft selection.
But this one is of their own making. It was a colossal risk, given that
Baker has struggled the past several years, or ever since the lockout in
1998-99, and that he is on the books for $50-odd million over the next
three-plus seasons.
Asked about Baker's performance to date, the ever-quotable Papile offered
this insight: "Remember, he's a rotation guy, not a savior."

"
He (Baker) played well in the playoffs against San Antonio last year. It's
virtually impossible for a guy to disappear between May and October. To say
he's done is premature. He didn't age in dog years over the summer. "



- Leo Papile

There you have it: a rotation guy. In fact, O'Brien revealed this week that
he never expected Baker to start, that he, the coach, was quite happy with
his existing power combination up front of Battie and Walker. He said he
notified Baker from the outset that Battie would remain the starter and that
Baker would be coming off the bench. He'd be a rotation player, just like
Shammond Williams
<http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3277>  and Bruno
Sundov <http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?statsId=3278> .
To his credit, Baker has handled all the early inspection with his customary
goodwill and patience. He said he is learning the system, trying to get
involved and that he has always been a slow starter. He cited injuries to
his ankle and pinky finger. He has promised, more than once, to be ready on
Oct. 30, when the bell rings.
Boston can be a very tough place to play, and Baker will have to develop an
ultra-thick skin to handle the criticism if his game remains as it is.
Already Baker has elicited comparisons to failed Red Sox first baseman Tony
Clark and to Patriots wide receiver Donald Hayes, who in a moment of either
historic candor or outright stupidity admitted he hadn't learned all the
plays five weeks into the NFL season.
Baker's season hasn't even started yet, but he's already under the
proverbial microscope. He had an encouraging debut against the Knicks (11
points, seven rebounds) before the aforementioned three-game nosedive. Over
seven exhibition games, he's averaging 4.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.4
fouls in 19.6 minutes a game. He's shooting 47.4 percent from the line. He
has yet to block a shot in 137 minutes. He has more turnovers than anyone
other than Pierce and Walker, both of whom are averaging 10 more minutes a
game.
This is not the Vin Baker the Celtics hoped to get. But the games now don't
count. Soon, they will.
"He played well in the playoffs against San Antonio last year," Papile
noted. "It's virtually impossible for a guy to disappear between May and
October. To say he's done is premature. He didn't age in dog years over the
summer."
That's not the first time the word "dog" has been used in a sentence with
Baker as the subject. The Celtics hope it's the last.