The entire city of Boston is rejoicing, as the hopes for their Celtics’ basketball team are higher than they have been in years. In fact, the last time they were probably this happy about opening up a new season is the season after a young rookie named Paul Pierce helped the Celtics make a nice little playoff run back in the summer of 1999.
Going into the 1999-2000 NBA season, it looked as if Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker were going to be a duo to reckon with for a long time. It didn’t quite work out like that though. Before the Boston Celtics were able to put anything around the duo, Antoine Walker was sent packing before the start of the 2003-2004 NBA season, after only missing only 5 games since the that 99-2000 season. The Pierce-Walker combination was over.
Since then, the Celtics have won just 42% of their games and reached the playoffs during the 2004-05 season. But Walker had come back via trade for that playoff birth, before being traded to Miami at the end of the year.
But forget about a duo. The Celtics are talking about establishing a trio in order to regain the relevance they once had when Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce roamed the hardwood of Boston.
The buzz that the arrivals of Kevin Garnet and Ray Allen have generated is beyond monumental.
It all started with the paucity of luck in this past 2007 NBA draft lottery where the Celtics were dealt the unlucky hand of ending up with the 5th pick of draft, despite having the 2nd best chance at winning the overall first pick. They ended up trading their pick away to get lure Ray Allen away from rebuilding Seattle Sonics team. Everyone saw that as a move by General Manager Danny Ainge that would assist him in keeping his job. Most figuring that the combination of Allen and Pierce would at least make the Boston Celtics a contender in the lowly Eastern Conference.
But Danny Ainge wasn’t done. And his next move could be construed in two different ways. The move was to acquire Kevin Garnett in trade for the entire Celtics’ roster, minus Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Now, you could say that was a move to bring a team with a chance to win it all to Boston and nothing more. Or you could say that this was a desperate move to make the team relevant so that Ainge would not lose his job. The former would suggest that this team is a championship contender. And they may end up being that (although I doubt it), but if they don’t, there is no way to make this team better. The Boston Celtics will be too good to have anything better than mid-round draft pick. And if they are not as good as hoped, they have nothing on their roster that could put them a position to acquire someone to add to their big three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.
And there are some pieces missing. They probably need a shooter in the starting lineup who is not named Ray Allen. Obviously, this team is going to draw many double teams, someone beside Ray Allen has to be able to step up and knock down some shots for an entire 82 game season. The defense is not there either, even though Bostonites will point to Rondo, Posey and the pick up of a defensive assistant. But they all will be disappointed when they are averaging over 98 points allowed per game.
In the end, Ainge had better hope this works out for him. Because if they don’t become a player in the East this season, he may prolong his tenure in Boston, but it won’t become a better situation. He traded away any of his players that had room for growth, in a move that has been ambiguously criticized. I think the Celtics will be relevant for a while, but asking them to beat a handful of Eastern Conference playoff teams who have better defenses, more young talent and more cohesiveness is asking a lot.
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