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The common thought among Celtics fans (at least I think it is common in part because it is what I believe, but maybe I'm projecting) is that Jeff Green is a good gamble with reasonable upside while Big Baby has peaked as a player and will likely be overpaid from now on. Obviously it depends on what each player commands in the open market and what dollars they ultimately sign for, but these perceptions might not be accurate. Consider these recent ESPN articles.
NBA Free Agency: Who are the best free-agent bargains? - ESPN
[Glen} Davis embodies an accomplished role player with excellent career numbers, in terms of wins and big plays made in important games. He's considered a good locker room guy, easy to get along with and open to coaching from the staff and veteran players. Now that he's a respected vet himself and has played in dozens of tense playoff games despite being just 25, teams needing "glue guys" will target Davis as someone who can do more than just play a role. He brings all those "war" stories with him, not to mention a vast knowledge of how to play elite-level team defense.
2011 NBA Free Agency: A list of free agents teams better do their homework on - ESPN
[Jeff] Green was more or less the same player in Boston he was in Oklahoma City, but the bigger stage exposed a national audience to the shortcomings that led the Thunder to deem him expendable. It also dispelled the notion that Green's issue was playing out of position as a power forward for Oklahoma City. Green played both forward positions with the Celtics, and as a small forward, his poor outside shooting tended to shrink the floor on offense. The danger is that Boston invested so much in Green that the front office will feel the need to re-sign him as a restricted free agent.
Not exactly comforting to those who assume the C's will give Green a multi-year deal and let Baby walk.
Just because we traded Perkins for Green doesn't mean we have to sign him to a contract that he's not worth. Just because Baby is acting like a knucklehead (an annual summer pastime for him) doesn't mean he can't be served some humble pie by the free agent market (again) and come back to Boston to play his role (then get confused by his role, then get back to playing his role, ...repeat).
Some people would be happy paying Jeff Green upwards of 7 to 9 million a year while those same folks would not want to give Glen Davis much more than he made last year for us - say somewhere between 4 and 5 million. Just looking at the raw stats, is Jeff Green really worth almost twice as much as Big Baby? Is that really the best value?
I assume that the team will resign Green and let Big Baby walk, but it just depends on the price and their relative value to the team. You just never know how these things will play out.