Wallace Is Safe

Wallace is the right way to go

i am glad they are keeping wallace- some time playing in the d league is better than blisters from the bench.- but they missed out methinks on batista.

Batista looked very SLOW during the T-Wolves game. Really, what did he bring to the table?

Wallace has potential. He was playing out of position in college. At small forward, he could develop into a solid defender.

Pruitt has the d league written all over him. He is not ready.

As for Manuel, it was nice knowing you, but you are GONE.

So Rivers cuts Batista, and then worries (quite rightly) about Perkins getting into foul trouble against the Knicks’ big front line. Well, Doc, if you still had Batista, you’d have another widebody to handle that situation.

Sometimes I wonder why there isn’t a family of woodpeckers living on Doc Rivers’ head.

Look, I’m not suggesting that Batista is the second coming of Wayne Embry. But Dahntay Jones and Jackie Manuel aren’t the second coming of Bruce Bowen, either.

as they say you can’t teach size. I thought Batista looked good on the boards. I question this move; with pollard out and Perk our only real center I don’t see why we were in such a hurry to cut batista. I like wallace’s potential but batista fills an immediate need, wallace doesn’t. On the positive side I think this opens up minutes for Powe who I’m a big fan of. I think Butler will be the last cut and that pruitt is headed to the d league along with wallace.

You’ve got a point, Brick. For as long as he’s been here Doc has gone for a small team and played small, then lamented/excused the situation because they don’t have enough big bigs.

Watching the preseason games showed me that Batista simply isn’t an NBA player. He has okay size for a big but he’s really, really stiff and slow. We would all be yelling for him to get off the court anyway, I’m glad the option isn’t there for Doc to screw up. Hopefully Danny can address any depth issues at C but if it doesn’t happen immediately, I’m not going to star worrying about this team.

Wallace is a good pick to stick around of the lot, throw him in the D-League and see what happens. I do hope Davis sticks around with the main club, he should be able to earn minutes this season if he works hard enough.

Brick, that was funny about the woodpecker!!

I agree with Master Po about the 1st unit geling together and forming continuity. I would rather see Leon Powe, being the dirt dog that he is, in there causing havoic… aka Loscutoff, but with beter skills than Loscy!!!

Can hardly wait for tonights game!

The wisdom of carrying one healthy center and one true point guard on a 15 man squad just baffles me! Pollard hasn’t stepped foot on the court yet, so he’s nowhere near ready to help. If Perk or Rondo go down with, say, a severe ankle sprain, and misses three weeks do you really like the alternatives? Makes no sense!
I can see it now, T or R Allen bringing the ball up against a press by B Knight! What a nightmare!—-and small ball, here we go again. Ugh!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t think Batista wanted to be an end-of-the-bench guy. The way he and his agent were talking when they first came, I think he expected to be a solid top 8 rotation guy, and when it became clear that he wouldn’t be that, they probably agreed that it was best for him to go. I do find the move curious. But you can’t keep guys around who don’t want the role available to them.

I’m not too worried about it. If Danny Fortson and Malik Rose can have productive years as 6-8 centers, I don’t see why Powe can’t give you 10-12 minutes a night there. Besides, many of the contenders in the East (and West for that matter) are playing PF as centers. Detroit plans to start Rasheed at C; Chicago starts Ben Wallace, whose been an undersized center all along; Toronto starts Bosh and Bargnani. And none of them are bringing real centers off the bench (unless you call Rasho a real center). I think Powe brings more defense to the table than Batista, even at his size. We’ll be fine. But, obviously, it would be nice if Perk just stopped swiping at the ball 20 feet away from the basket. That would be much better.

Brick, Scalabrine did such an stellar job on the boards last season at the center position. It’s only logical for Rivers to give him the backup center job. So there was no need for Batista….Or Davis….Or Powe….We’re all set.

The woodpeckers are exhausted from banging their beeks against the wall, Brick. So am I.

I am so annoyed with League Pass. I can’t even sign up yet in my area!! They say they think Saturday at the earliest.

If Powe is going to play mostly the 5, we should have cut or traded him a long time ago. I was unimpressed with his PT last season, and don’t expect much improvement. He is a poor man’s Shelden Williams, if that is possible. Only saw the Minnesota game, but Batista did not look slow to me for a guy with his size. I also worry that Pollard will be hurt much of the year.

Brick, I totally agree that they could have used another big body more than a swing guy with potential, but I’m not convinced Doc made that decision unilaterally.

Expect tonight game.

With Batista, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the Celtics call for him to be released. He was signed to Maccabi way too quickly not to have a deal doen already. His agent knew he was going to be the 15th guy on the roster, so he got him a deal elsewhere and then asked the C’s to release him. Kinda sucks, but it seemed the only thing he had going for him was size. If that’s all we are looking for then go get Kandi again.

I’d prefer Batista over Kandi. I look at Kandi and I just think waste of talent. I don’t know what if anything occured behind the scenes.

On the surface thought you have Perk with a history of injury and fould issues. Pollard thus far is damaged goods. Scal is Scal. You are potentially putting a lot of pressure on Powe and Baby if you don’t have some big man deal waiting in the wings.

Batista is/was serviceable. Being in the predicament we were in I think it was a bit premature in letting the guy go.

For a bunch of guys who try to act like they are basketball geniuses, I find it funny that you don’t even know enough to realize that this was Danny’s decision, not Doc’s. Doc isn’t the one making these cuts. He obviously has input up the ladder and is consulted by Danny, but he does not run this ship. I just hope that it is just another way for you to rip on Doc and that you really aren’t that ignorant…

Batista was either wearing concrete Nike’s or is so terribly slow compared to real NBA players that he would never make it. I’ll take Powe anyday out there over that stiff. He was worth a look, but that was it.

Brandon Wallace is a future rotation player on someone’s team for sure…this is good news that they are keeping him…I’m shocked Manuel has made it this far, this makes me think he might be kept…

docextension – you might be right about Kandi, but the thing I liked about him was that he didn’t make waves on the end of the bench, and he did have ’’talent’’. I haven’t seen anything out of Batista that suggests that he has more than mediocre ability against NBA level competition. I don’t think they need to add another big, but if they did I would be all for Kandi coming back. He has flashes of his higher end talent, and off the bench there are very few bigs that can say that.

Plowboy – Maybe the woodpeckers would be better off pecking into something other than a wall?! Seems to me it is smarter to be the wall than the woodpecker in that one…

If there has been a mistake made over the past few years and there have been many it was an overabunance of 2s and 3s and a lack of big boy help. I am hoping history isn’t repeating itself.

Batista was another Tiago Splitter for the European wet dreamers. Let’s give Doc and Danny this much credit….they picked up Batista, if he had game they’d have kept him For every foreign Dirk there is a bigger bust such as the Indy/GS point guard. C’mon guys…Doc isn’t the perfect NBA coach but I doubt he’s wrong on Batista or Wallace (as a keeper)