Ahh reviewing how wrong people were regarding the Baynes 'negotiations' underselling him.
Anywho Baynes is playing better and better.
Tony, Manu, and Boris are finding Baynes much in the manner that Oberto made his living from right at the rim. He is a good passer and Pop called on him to run a triangle look out of a set play with him in the high post, Bobo in the wing, and Leonard on the baseline where Baynes found him cutting inside for and easy dunk.
More importantly he more and more appears to be owning the offense and his role in it. He no longer looks confused as he moves around down low, into the post high or low, into horns, or for the pnr out on the wing or up top. He moves from spot to spot concentrating at the task at hand moreso than figuring out what task he is trying to accomplish like he used to.
He sets excellent screens that scrape defenders off Manu, Parker, and Cojo. Smaller guys like Jack and Williams are routinely taken out of the play entirely forcing immediate rotations for the defense. A guy like Manu feasts on that and Parker can just get to the rim. He takes pride in this task he likes to bang and grind. He will slip screens if guys get caught under him and try to take people for a ride. He leans, pushes, hipshchecks, shivers, and otherwise imposes his will onto passing bigs. His owning of the offense sees him on the lookout for such opportunities.
The next step in his evolution are finding the spots on the floor where he is finding himself open most often and practicing the out of a jumper from there.
His rebounding is limited by his hands which at this point can at best be described as average. He doesn't have the manual dexterity and large hands of Leonard and Duncan to tip the ball to himself as they do, so the ball will careen at times as he struggles to get a hand in. Some of this is due to him focusing on keeping a body on the oppositions top rebounders. He can be a bit overzealous yet he has improved noticeably in this area as he bangs then crashes the board fluidly instead of getting tied up despite inside position.
He sticks in his nose regularly on the offensive glass but much of those numbers are him gathering his own misses. He can finish with both hands but which hand and how to attack is still a work in progress. He has been shooting over 50% for the year to this point nevertheless.
Defensively is where he makes his greatest contributions. He was entirely too upright against the Kings a week or more ago and got roached on the pnr. He adjusted since with much better bend and he has been able to keep up with the lesser centers he has played. Cousins may be the best 5 in the league right now. He is now bending and sliding to do a much better job mirroring penetrators.
Most importantly, the man can use his size and length to protect the rim. The defense is designed to funnel penetration baseline and he more often than not is that weakside baseline rotation. He does a great job moving to each side of the key and up top outside the circle when they get middle. He forces a lot of bad shot as guys cannot get around him and I often find myself incredulous at low block totals on the stat sheet. He has fallen victim of foul calls seeing him going straight up and the offender creating the contact but for the most part he is not fouling on his rotations.
Overall he has settled into his role as the fourth big and getting 15-20 mins a night. In this role he contributes more than previous bigs particularly on the defensive end where Blair and Ayers have struggled to contribute. Pop is playing him in lineups with Parker, Manu, Leonard, Bobo, and now Duncan that are effective both offensively and defensively. His teammates are adjusting to him as he is to they and things are looking up for the Australian big man.
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