Glen Davis Could Miss Two Months, Faces Team Suspension

Glen "Big Baby" Davis won't miss the entire season with his thumb injury, as initially thought possible. But he'll still sit for the six to eight weeks, according to Yahoo!'s Marc Spears, who spoke with Davis on Tuesday after the third-year forward underwent surgery earlier in the day.

While missing two months is certainly better than the entire year, it doesn't mean the Celtics are any more pleased about the injury, which Davis admits occurred when he threw a punch at a long-time friend after an argument escalated over the weekend.

From Spears:

Davis said the incident happened early Sunday morning when Davis' girlfriend, Jenna Gomez, one of her girlfriends and one of his high school friends were returning to his West Boston home after celebrating Gomez's birthday. Davis said he and his high school friend got into a heated debate over some "personal issues," and the friend, who was driving their vehicle, threw a punch at Davis. Davis retaliated by throwing a punch back that broke his hand.

The entire incident -- not only throwing a punch, but throwing a punch at someone behind the wheel of a vehicle -- reflects poorly on Davis, and Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is understandably annoyed. From the Boston Globe:

"I've had enough of 'Big Baby,' so I'm going to start calling him Glen," Grousbeck told the Globe. "It certainly seems like there's going to be a suspension here."

While Davis could contest the suspension, standard language in player contracts allows for teams to take disciplinary action against a player for for fighting.

Any suspension would presumably occur while Davis was sidelined -- it wouldn't make any sense at all to leave the Celtics short-handed longer than they have to be. (Although, considering Davis' ample physique, you have to wonder just how long it'll take him to get into game shape once he is finally ready to return, although, with a hand injury, there's no reason he can't wear out the tread mill in the interim.)

Fortunately, it's not like the Celtics can't shoulder the load in his absence -- even though Davis was a productive starter by the end of last year's playoff run, a healthy Kevin Garnett and the presence of Rasheed Wallace means Davis will be little more than the second big off the bench on most nights.

But still, it's not the immediate future the Celtics need to be worried about -- it's the cumulative effect of Garnett and Wallace playing extra minutes early in the year that may cause problems down the road. That type of wear and tear completely sidelined Garnett for last year's playoff run, just as it's reduced Wallace's effectiveness in the playoffs the last several years for Detroit.