It's a bigger key to next season than you think. No team can win with only five impact players — especially a team like the Celtics, who are bound to endure injuries and slumps given the age and mileage of the men in their starting five.
Posey is long gone, Sheed has moved on as well, and all signs point to Big Baby being the big spark plug off the bench. He may only be 24, but now is his time to take over as the star of the Celtics' second unit.
Baby's rise up the Celtics' depth chart in his first three years has been rapid. Upon being drafted in the second round in 2007 — 35th overall by the Sonics, before his draft rights were promptly traded to Boston alongside Ray Allen — he quickly began his ascent.
In 2008, he was a nobody. He was the 11th man off the bench in the postseason as the Celtics began their historic Finals run, buried on Doc Rivers' depth chart beneath veterans like Posey and P.J. Brown.
In '09, he began to make a name for himself. He was a playoff starter thanks to the injured right knee of Kevin Garnett, and he made the most of it. He was a double-double threat every night, and he even sank a game-winning jumper to propel the Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Orlando.
This spring, Big Baby began the playoffs as a rising star — he dropped 23 points and eight rebounds on the Heat in Game 2 of the first round, filling in for a suspended KG — and he finished as practically a celebrity. He was Shrek, and Nate Robinson was Donkey. The whole world knew who Glen Davis was.
The guy has always had a proclivity for big games. He knows how to step up when his team needs him, but what his team needs from him now is to step up every single night. It's not always about heroics — it's about consistency. Big Baby has to be bigger than just a couple of breakout playoff games.
Rivers has often joked that every time Baby plays a single good game, he expects a parade. That mind-set has to change. The key to Baby's maturation process next season? Just keep playing. Block out the hype, forget about the extracurricular hoopla, and just keep doing your job.
Big Baby has a malleable personality, both as a basketball player and as a man. He's still an impressionable youngster, and he's learned a lot from Garnett, Allen and Paul Pierce about how to carry himself on and off the court.
But here's the next step: He's got to learn to be his own man. And he's got to be that man every single night — not because it's what his coaches or his teammates ask of him, but because within himself, deep down, he knows his role.
Big Baby has got to be bigger than ever.
NESN.com will answer one Celtics question every day in July.
Monday, July 12: Will the Celtics miss Rasheed Wallace?
Wednesday, July 14: Is re-signing Nate Robinson a high priority?
