Vin Baker-stealth player?

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You know, something crossed my mind as I read about the various potential 
ramifications of this trade.

All summer, everyone's been publicly supportive of Vin Baker.  The fans, 
the players, Coach O'Brien, etc.

Everyone, that is, except Danny Ainge, who couched his comments in 
statements like "we're not keeping our expectations high", or "We don't 
want to put too much pressure on him."  Bleah.  Danny has always been a 
high-pressure sort of guy.   He waltzed Baker under everyone's noses.  In 
retrospect, is it reasonable to even think that Danny hadn't closely 
analyzed Baker's conditioning and rehab over the summer?

I begin to wonder if there wasn't a conversation between Baker and Ainge 
that went, "You show up in the best shape of your life, run hard, and stay 
sober.  You'll be in the starting lineup."--or at the very least, a plan in 
the back of Danny's mind for such.

If Baker makes it back, Antoine is not the urgent necessity at power 
forward, or at the very least, can play fewer minutes.  If not, Baker is 
gone, and the money is held out as a carrot for Walker to get with the 
program.  But Baker came back in even better shape than anyone dared hope, 
and his performance after getting crunched in the last game showed he's 
serious.  I think Danny was at that game specifically to see what Baker was 
like up close in a game, and by the next morning, was on the phone with 
Mark Cuban.

Coupled with Walker's public reluctance to embrace the running game 
presenting what amounted to a public challenge to Ainge's authority, the 
time to act--regardless of who or what he could get--was now.

IF--and that's a really big if, even now--Baker works out as Ainge seems to 
believe he will, then the C's will have essentially traded out Walker's 
contract and resistance for Baker's willingness to do whatever he's 
told.  Vin's next contract won't be anywhere near this one, but the C's 
could end up with a bargain.  Even a "Super-Baker" won't be enough, as the 
entire team has to step up.  But, in all honesty, with Walker gone, the 
rest of the team has the opportunity to do just that.

The next two games ought to be very interesting.  Assuming that Coach 
O'Brien hasn't been arrested for trying to insert a basketball into Danny's 
anatomy.  :>))))

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
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