We have a "fans who don't appreciate our big men" problem.
1. KG is an elite big man on the floor.
2. Jared Sullinger is a rebounding machine, high percentage scorer, and ONE OF THE BEST DEFENSIVE big men in the league. Here's some analysis by Matty Mackay from Celtics life.
http://www.celticslife.com/2013/01/jared-sullinger-world-class-defender.html3. Brandon Bass is without a doubt 6'7 on a good day. But he's one of the BEST one-on-one defenders in the league, he's ELITE at mid-range and free throw shooting. He's underrated in the fast breaks, and he dishes out hard fouls and sets mean screens. He's a routine player and unfortunately he was constantly shuffled in and out of line ups due to injuries. That really threw off his offensive game. Now that Avery is back and our starting line-up is set, he will get his offensive rhythm back. He's also lost a lot of weight in the off season and he's moving very well.
4. Jeff Green coming off of heart surgery lost a lot of muscle and rhythm. He's slowly rounding into shape but he's a match up nightmare in the 4 spot when we go small. He can shoot the 3 pretty well for a PF. His rebounding and defense has improves every game.
5. Chris Wilcox has had heart surgery a few months later than Jeff Green. He's also had other injuries. He also gets little playing time to find his rhythm. He WILL be a factor later in the season. An excellent energy guy to wear out the other teams bigs.
6. Poor Jason Collins gets berated upon because what he does cannot be seen in stats or even by your eyes. Want to know why Jason Collins was the first big guy we signed in the off season before guys like Darko, K-mart, Blatche and Birdman? He brings something extremely important. He's the best talking big man who has the IQ to understand defensive rotations who gets people to the right spots. This means when KG goes to the bench we don't lose defensive communication. This is the biggest reason our defense went away when KG sat, but now people continue to talk. In the Rockets game, Sullinger and Collins was our best (non KG) big man line up defensively. They both talk well and took charges. Also Collins communication is probably what helps our bench pick up our defense in practice when they go against the starters.
7. Fab Melo doesn't count. Unless we have a slew of injuries at the big position he will not play this year. He's a nice prospect though.
Would it be nice to have a talented young big man like Cousins? Yes. But let's not fail to appreciate the incredible depth, talent and versatility we already have in that position. I would argue that there are very few teams who have a better rotation of big men than the Celtics. We lack young height (next year Fab!), but we have a mix of high IQ, athleticism, experience, rebounding, blocks, charges, steals, energy, poise and clutch.