Rasheed Wallace Joins Boston Celtics

Rasheed Wallace Is Another Body To Throw At Howard

The Boston Globe reports

An NBA source said tonight forward Rasheed Wallace has committed to sign with the Celtics Wednesday, the first day free agents are eligible to sign.

“Once (Wallace) had a chance to reflect on everything, and realizing what his objectives are, he just decided this was the best fit for him, all the way around,” said Bill Strickland, Wallace’s agent.

Wallace is expected to receive a two-year deal using the mid-level exception (expected to be about $5.6 million to $5.8 million).

First Reaction

This acquisition is more name + fame than game.

Rasheed Wallace

Rasheed Wallace has declined considerably over the last few seasons, and over the last year in particular. His legs have started to go, and he’s lost a lot of his once outstanding mobility, which has hurt his defense.

Rasheed Wallace has been a mediocre scorer for the past few seasons, scoring around 12 points in 30-32 minutes, and doing so with poor scoring efficiency. Wallace has also been below average rebounding wise, which mostly stems from his anemic offensive rebounding (worst amongst all big men in the NBA in offensive rebounding rate). Rasheed’s defensive rebounding was very good last season (I expect that to return to the norm next season), and has been solid-to-good for the last couple of seasons. Wallace’s passing is still a very good too.

Defensively, Wallace has been a good defender when he’s allowed to hang around the rim. His intelligence defensively is off the charts, his positioning is superb, his ability to read the game and react quickly, and then he’s almost seven feet with great length. So, Rasheed does effect the game in a positive way when he’s in the paint.

However, his declining athletic abilities have hurt his perimeter defense hugely. Wallace was, by far, the Pistons worst pick and roll defender for the second year running, and his defense on perimeter orientated big men (many PFs nowadays) has been weak. His inability to cover the pick and roll effectively was one of the major reasons why Detroit’s defense dropped off so badly this past season.

Ergo, Wallace is a fairly mediocre player.

Celtics Big Men Minutes

The Celtics now have a good three man, big man, rotation with Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace. Both KG and Perkins and should be playing 30-33 minutes a game next season, with Wallace playing anywhere from 20 minutes to 30 minutes a night depending on what happens with that fourth big man.

I assume the Celtics would like a fourth big, preferably Glen Davis, or quite possibly a Joe Smith type, to play 10-15 minutes a game. Then use Rasheed for around 20-25 minutes a night.

Length

The Celtics wanted to add length, and needed to add length, to their interior players. They now have:

• Kevin Garnett — can play power forward or center, is 7-1 or 7-2 and extremely long.
• Kendrick Perkins — 6-10, 280lbs of pure muscle, and very long.
• Rasheed Wallace — 6-11, 260lbs, and long. Capable of playing either big man position.

So these three big men can play effectively alongside one another and are all long defenders who are imposing in the paint.

This is important for Boston, because they need to be able to matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers (Gasol, Bynum, Odom) , the Cleveland Cavaliers (Shaq, Ilgauskas, Varejao), and of course, Orlando’s Dwight Howard next season. Adding a big man like Wallace helps them matchup size-for-size.

Questions

(1) Is next year’s KG-Perk-Sheed frontcourt better than last year’s KG-Perk-Powe-Davis frontcourt?

I’ve been thinking about it and I’m not sure it is. Not sure it isn’t either.

(2) How much better is Rasheed Wallace over a Joe Smith?

They’re fairly similar offensively, rebounding and defensively.

Similar scoring rates (Sheed slightly better), similar scoring efficiency, both jump shooting big men with Sheed having more range on his jumper. Similar rebounding numbers, slight advantage for Joe Smith. Similar defensive strengths and weaknesses, but Wallace’s are strengths are stronger.

Rasheed Wallace is definitely better, but how much better? An MLE signing versus a likely minimum contract signing, does that sound right? Is Wallace 6th man material and Joe Smith 9th man material?

Overall

Overall, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one. I’m concerned about how Rasheed Wallace’s game has declined, and I’m worried about how well he’ll hold up over the next two seasons. A two year MLE contract is fairly large commitment, and sizable risk, for the Boston Celtics and I’m not convinced Wallace is a clear cut decision at that money.

That said, Rasheed Wallace definitely can still help a team. There’s a decent chance that he might even be somewhat invigorated by playing less minutes, and in new surroundings, which would help him get more out of his game — still highly skilled, not enough production for all those skills.

I’m leaning towards good, but not great, addition for the Boston Celtics.

Side Note: There’s a lot of rumours about Grant Hill signing for Boston. I think Grant would actually have a bigger impact for Boston than Wallace. Not due to his contract, just playing wise.

Update: Rasheed Wallace has been given a three year contract with a player option on the third season. Considering how much Wallace has declined over the past two years, and the likelihood of him holding up for three more seasons, this is a bad contract.