When the report first came out of Boston looking at Darko we took it with a grain of salt… oh, who are we kidding, it was like a 5 lb. bag of salt.
But apparently it’s true — the Boston Celtics are going to sign Darko Milicic, reports A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com.A league source confirmed to CSNNE.com that Milicic, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft, will sign a one-year deal with the Celtics next week for the veteran’s minimum.
The signing of Milicic will give the C’s 14 guaranteed contracts heading into training camp, which begins Sept. 29.
While half of Boston just yelled “NOOOOO” this is not a bad move. Not a game changer by any means, but not terrible as some will paint it.
This gives the Celtics two more traditional big men off the bench to balance out their small ball lineups his year (Jason Collins is the other). Also fighting for minutes off the bench will be Chris Wilcox, plus rookies Jared Sullinger and Fab Melo. That group gives coach Doc Rivers some flexibility.
Darko is a guy who never lived up to the hype of being picked No 2 overall, he certainly was not the “manna from heaven” Timberwolves GM David Kahn said he was, but Darko is not as big a disaster as some labeled him. He developed into an okay backup center. While he struggled some last year, he has a career PER of 12.3, which is just below the league average and what you can expect out of a lot of backup bigs in the league. He’s not going to score or rebound a lot for you, but he can give you a decent 12 minutes a game and not really hurt you.
He’s the kind of guy (like Collins) that would float through the league on minimum deals and not draw much attention save for where he was taken in the draft. If he had been a late first or second round pick (as he should have been) this signing would be a footnote. One seen as decent insurance for the Celtics.
Which is exactly what it is.
By the way, one other interesting roster note from Blakely:
