Darius the Nefarious
I've been all over the map when it comes to Darius Miles. When he was on the Clippers, I was a big fan, rejoicing in the odd headbumps that he and Quentin Richardson would do. A few years later, I thought he became slightly overpaid and seemed like only a mediocre player. He proved me wrong by becoming an absolute disaster off-the-court and combining with Zach Randolph to be one of the biggest stat whore combos in recent memory.
Now the Celtics sign him and... eh.
I'm not happy that the Celtics have turned to Darius as a possible solution to their small forward issues but it's only a flyer so it's too hard to get worked up about it. In terms of talent, he should help defensively but he doesn't really fit Posey's role on offense (which was basically to launch up threes). I'm not sure who we have to do that since Tony Allen isn't much of a trey threat and I really hope we're not planning on giving Scal big minutes at the 3.
In terms of attitude, I don't like it much at all. Darius was a grade A doofus for most of his career and while it would be nice to think that his injury might have caused his career to flash before his eyes, I'm not going to bet on it. Yes, KG is his idol but Darius is also the guy who said, "Look, I don't influence nobody. I can't tell no grown man what to do." so I'm not sure how well he'll take to KG's mentoring. On top of that, the Celtics have added JR Giddens who also is supposedly a bit of a "free spirit" shall we say and I don't like having Miles around him. As the old Al Maguire quote goes, "You can have one donkey on your roster, but you can't have two. Because then they'll breed."
On the other had, there's always the fact that Darius Miles could be a lockdown defender and a good enough offensive player to be a legit role player on this Celtics team. Potential-wise, he's better than any remaining free agents. He might be the longshot to Devin Brown's sure thing but if there was a team that could take the risk, wouldn't it be the Celtics? Darius also has never been on a winning, veteran team so maybe he could straighten himself out ala Randy Moss.
All in all, part of me doesn't like that Danny Ainge seems to be getting a little too cute for his own good this off-season. He seems to be rolling the dice every chance he gets: letting Posey walk over a 4th year, relying on Tony Allen, reaching for JR Giddens, and now Miles. Will it matter? Who knows. But personally, I'd rather not even let the question arise. But Danny brought 17 to Beantown so he's earned the right to walk out on a limb.
