MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Back-up SF Situation: Think Barnes

The Need for a Small Forward

Look folks, with Posey gone, the Celtics will be missing their all-important backup small forward.  I mean who do they have that is going to play the utility 3 spot that Posey adeptly handled? Well, according to boston.com, Danny Ainge claims the  following:

We go to the next options. We’re not going to sign one player that is going to replace James Posey. We’re going to do it in a different way and different fashion. We are going to reallocate our dollars in different ways. We are not necessarily looking for a small forward. We’re looking to become a better team. We’re still talking with veteran point guards. We’re still talking to veteran bigs. We are still looking at wing players. We are still looking at all the above. We still have J.R. Giddens and Bill Walker’s situation.

“We are not necessarily looking for a small forward”?  Come on Danny, let’s not lean on Pierce too heavily now. There is a spot on the bench that DOES need to be filled between the back-up shooting guard (whether its Eddie House (FA) or Tony Allen (FA) or Greg Pruitt behind Ray Allen) and the back-up power forward (whether its Leon Powe, Big Baby Davis or Brian Scalabrine behind KG).  Do the math - the Celtics most certainly need a bonafide small forward, i.e., a wing player with some length, coming off their bench.

According to 82games.com, Posey played the most minutes at power forward with Garnett sliding to center. He played approximately 12.5 minutes per game (mpg) at PF and 9 mpg at SF. Ray Allen played a little over 4 mpg at SF, with Pierce essentially getting the rest (32 mpg).

So if the Celtics stand pat, they are limited to sliding Ray Allen to the 3-spot and having the unsigned House or TAllen coming in for Pierce and playing SG. So Celtics could always have either Paul Pierce or Ray Allen on the court to cover the SF position, but where’s the length when you need it?  You still have to cover the 6′ 9″ Tayshaun Prince or AK47, the 6′ 8″ LBJ or Melo, and the 6′ 7″ Richard Jefferson, Caron Butler and Josh Howards of the world.

So I assume Ainge is blowing smoke and he is looking long and hard at the FA small forwards.

The Free Agents

Yahoo’s NBA - Sports Rumors offers the following as available unrestricted free agents that are still unsigned: Michael Finley, Devean George, Matt Barnes, Bostjan Nachbar, Maurice Evans, and Bonzi Wells.  Slim pickins indeed.

However, their is a growing consensus over at the Celtics17 board, lead by yours truly, that the best available guy to fit the Celtics situation is Matt Barnes. We touted Josh Childress as being the perfect fit, but we admitted he’s encumbered by the restricted free agent tag and will be tough to sign away from the Hawks.

Who is Matt Barnes?

Matt Barnes has been in the league as a bit of journeyman.  He was drafted in 2002, cut and did not play, and then spent time with 5 teams in 6 years.  But he hung on in Golden State for the last two years where he’s performed steadily as the back-up forward.  He’s a reasonably long 6′ 7″ and can play some PF like Posey, and in fact played most of his 20 mpg with the Warriors at the PF position, but that was in Don Nelson’s small ball system where he even got minutes at center on occasion . . . by most accounts, he’s a classic small forward.

Barnes is a utility guy, similar to Posey, but is not the marksman that Posey is.  But realize that Posey was limited offensively, and had no offensive game between 23 feet and 5 feet out.  It was all 3-pointers or dunks for Posey.

Barnes is athletic and can hit the spot up jumper, and has a bit more versatility offensively.  Barnes also has 3-point range. However, that is a recent phenomena, because he only added the three to his game when he joined Golden State 2 years ago, and then proceeded to set a team record with 7 threes in a game!

 Barnes defense is also good, as he has accumulated a high steals and blocks in limited minutes, and he definitely has the mind set for playing tough defense.  The important thing to realize is that anyone coming to this Celtics team is going to have a quantum leap in their defensive capability (thank you KG).  Just ask Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

When you look at Barnes’ statistics, you can see that he did worse going from 2006-07 to 2007-08. But that is why Barnes is on the market (and Golden State wants to save on the $3M/yr they were spending on him), and this is the same reason that Posey was on the market last year. It is a buy low situation for any team that signs Barnes.

But I think if signed, you will be seeing someone that can easily match Posey numbers, minus the clutch shooting aspect. But wait - there was the 2007 play-offs, where Hoops Addict had this to say regarding the Warriors-Mavericks 1st round playoff matchup where Golden State suprised Dallas to advance:

Despite the fact Dallas had the fifth best winning percentage in NBA history at 67-15 during the regular season and home court throughout the playoffs, the Mavericks have been out-poised, outplayed, out-hustled, and out-hearted by a team making there first playoff entry in twelve years.One of the players responsible for Golden State’s impressive run in the playoffs is Matt Barnes [who] is posting career highs in all statistical categories. More importantly Matt Barnes has played every position from 1 to 5 both offensively and defensively. The intangibles Barnes has provided are beyond statistics and his leadership for the one of the NBA’s youngest teams is most noteworthy. It was Barnes in Game 4 who fearlessly bombed home a 3-point field goal with 23.9 seconds on the clock closing out the Mavericks and sending the gold-clad Oracle Arena fans into a certified frenzy!

So in closing, we present you Matt Barnes:

WARNING - the soundtrack for this video has adult content, but it has a good beat and good Barnes footage as far as I can tell!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Celtics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.