Gomes watch, part 3

The following is from the transcript of Danny Ainge's most recent conference call with Celtic season ticket holders. No, I'm not one. Although I've thought about it. The emphasis in bold is mine.

Mike Gorman: This question comes in from Kim Malo: "How much of a surprise was it the way Ryan Gomes has developed? Now obviously you saw his potential and weren't taken completely by surprise but I think what has amazed most of us is his polished veteran maturity as a rookie. Would you agree?"

Danny Ainge: Yes. Ryan Gomes has had an excellent year. He knows how to play. You know, the four years in college make a difference. Ryan, he's had some ups and downs though. I mean I get a little worried when everybody gets too excited and puts too much emphasis on Ryan. Ryan has been inconsistent to some degree. He's still a little bit short at that starting four position and last night I thought that three or four of their offensive rebounds that got down the stretch were just because of Ryan's lack of height.

The thing I like about Ryan is his own offensive rebounding abilities and his shot is coming along; he's proven that he can make that midrange shot. And he just has a feel for where to go, you know, to get to the open slots. I think he does a really good job of feeding off of Paul and that is probably his greatest strength right now for us.

We're really excited about who Ryan is as a person, his work ethic, and his development. And so I think Ryan's going to be a fixture with us for awhile.

Mike Gorman: Along similar lines (Joseph Leary) asks, "Are you going to ask Ryan Gomes to bulk up this summer so he can better bang with the power forwards or ask him to trim down and continue to work on his midrange jump shots so he can run with the small forwards?"

Danny Ainge: Well, I always think speed is an advantage more than bulk. I mean its one thing to put on an extra five or ten pounds and maintain conditioning or stay at the same weight and lose your body fat and get faster. I prefer the speed.

I think our game is moving that direction more and more. If Ryan could bulk up...and grow three inches we'd like that. But I like the speed factor. You know, even if he's played before I still would like to have him have a speed advantage and a perimeter quickness advantage - [I'd rather him to be able to] beat [his man] to the ball and jump better than to have more power and bulk. So I would root for speed and conditioning over power.

This reads to me like Danny still sees Ryan's future at the 3, not the 4. As Danny points out, the things Ryan would need to get better at to play small forward(outside shooting, quickness on offense and defense) are things a player can improve. The things Ryan would need to get better at to play power forward (size), he can't.