For some NBA team, he will be a big gamble.
Operative word: Big.
Though he stands only 6-foot-9, Glen "Big Baby" Davis' weight fluctuates between 289 and 295 pounds.
He hardly looks obese. In fact, he seems much more solid than flabby. But with a baby face and perhaps some unneeded baby fat lingering as well, the question of pounds vs. productivity cries for an answer.
It's an issue that concerns some decisionmakers around the league, yet one that probably won't prevent the Louisiana State University power forward from being picked somewhere in the first round of Thursday's NBA Draft.
"Like most of the kids that we bring in, he struggled with recovery from the thin air," Jazz player personnel director Walt Perrin said after Davis worked out in Utah on Sunday along with fellow big men Joel Anthony of UNLV, Warren Carter of Illinois and Levon Kendall of Pittsburgh.
"But," Perrin hastened to added, "he's a talent."
The likeable, somewhat soft-spoken Davis readily acknowledged that the Wasatch Front's altitude got the best of him Sunday.
"Up here in these mountains, hey man, you're running good up here, man," said Davis, a possible pick for the Jazz — if he's not already taken — when they choose No. 25 overall in Thursday's opening round.
"It's like you can't breathe sometimes," he said between an occasional huff and puff, sweat still rolling in the minutes after his on-court audition ended. "Your lungs lock up on you, you start coughing. You've got to get used to it."
Davis — who is leaving LSU after his junior season and was named Southeast Conference Player of the Year after averaging 9.7 rebounds and an SEC-high 18.6 points as a sophomore — also admitted Sunday that he's become quite accustomed to scouts and executives from various NBA teams asking him about eating habits.
His answer:
He's already cut down on sweets and tries to make better decisions about when he eats. Davis also says that while he already has dropped "a little bit" of weight, he knows he needs to lose more.
"You probably want to play a little bit lighter," he said. "But you've got to gradually lose the weight. You can't just drop it fast."
Pondering the response are executives like Jazz basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor, who said that while Davis has "worked on trimming himself down a little bit" the weight topic "always is a concern."
"There are always questions when you've got somebody that's started 'here' and has gotten to 'here,"' O'Connor said. "You don't know if that's the bottom, or if he's willing to work.
"If he's willing to work at it," the Jazz basketball boss added, "I think he can get himself in better shape and get some (pounds) off."
Perrin, for one, thinks Davis can.
"This is the best he's looked since (high school)," he said. "He did a good job of losing weight last summer. He's getting his body in shape."
The question is what will Davis morph into once he begins living the NBA lifestyle.
On one hand, he'll certainly never look like Keon Clark or Mikki Moore — and may never develop a physique a la Karl Malone.
On the other, NBA clubs simply are looking for signs that he'll also never become Greg Ostertag-chubby, Charles Barkley round-moundish or, in the extreme, anything even remotely resembling Oliver "Pig"
Miller.
"He's got a nice, sculpted body," Perrin said. "I mean, he's showing definition.
"He's probably got to lose a little more body fat," the Jazz's lead scout added, "but you're never gonna get him down to 250. I mean, he'd look anorexic from what he has been in the past."
Beyond such weighty matters, Davis says he must convince NBA teams that his SEC-high 10.4 rebounds-per-game average this past season is the real deal.
"Can I play at this level? Can I still dominate as a rebounder? Can I rebound on the same level as college? You never know," he said, "until you get there."
But upon arrival to whatever locale it may wind up being, Davis vows he'll be able to boost more than the bottom line of local restaurants and groceries.
"I'm an isolation guy, like Carlos Boozer," he said with regard to Utah's starting power forward. "Guys that are too small, he uses to his advantage. Guys too big, he goes around them. I think I can help in that way and bring another tough guy out there to play some 'D' and get some loose balls and just do little things.
"I'm just ready to play. Ready to win a championship," added Davis, who hails from the home of LSU, Baton Rouge, La. "You know, that's what it's all about. Immortality. Everyone wants a piece of it. I want my piece of it too."
And he wasn't talking about the pie.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com