Offseason Preview: Boston Celtics

by David Pincus
2006-06-29

05-06 began bad enough for the Boston Celtics as both Gary Payton and Antoine Walker found their way to the Miami Heat. A criticism from their 2004 team was that there were too many egos on the team. However removing those players cost Boston their main supporting cast, and Pierce was left to lead the team by himself.

Several Celtics players began to step up in key positions. Mark Blount finally made his way off the bench and averaged double-figures. Delonte West had a very solid year shooting the ball. Other young players like Justin Reed, Ryan Gomes and Kendrick Perkins started to emerge as well.

In mid-January, with the team about 5 back of the playoffs, GM Danny Ainge pulled the trigger. Marcus Banks, Ricky Davis, Mark Blount and Justin Reed were all sent to Minnesota for Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, and Dwayne Jones. The move was controversial, since they were traded their backup players for a worse team’s backup players.

But near the end Boston started to pull it together. Paul Pierce emerged himself as a late MVP contender as he single-handedly urged his team onto victory. They were only a couple games out the race with Chicago and Philadelphia when the team plummeted and lost seven of their last 9.

The Celtics have a one-man team going for them, but will they build or detract from Paul Pierce.

Needs:

To negotiate with Paul Pierce

The Celtics have made the playoffs four of the lat five years for only one reason: Paul Pierce. Pierce led the team in scoring 67 times last year and was the only Celtic to show up in the closing seconds of games. As long as Pierce is around, Boston will always be a contender for the postseason.

The problem is that this season is Pierce’s last on his contract, before he has the option to become a free-agent next season. If he wanted to stick around he’d be due over $16 million in 07-08. But after an entire career of trade rumors on a team that constantly has major shakeups, perhaps Pierce would exercise his option to leave.

Danny Ainge might not be so inclined to keep him around though, as Pierce faces rumors to be dealt to Minnesota or Philadelphia all the time. If he does get traded, it has to be for another premiere athlete like KG or Iverson. They can’t afford to let a 20-pt scorer go for nothing like they did with Antoine Walker.

Sebastian Telfair’s arrival

On draft day the Celtics traded their first-round pick to the Blazers, citing that Telfair was better than any of the available PG in the draft. To justify that type of analysis they’re going to have to make Telfair into something great, because as it stands Boston is in a lot of trouble.

Telfair started as the PG on the worst team in the NBA. He could keep that job though as Steve Blake ran the Blazers’ offense better. So with this trade, Boston has taken a huge leap of faith, to announce Telfair as their starting PG over Delonte West (who had a very nice year last season).

Unlike Steve Blake, Telfair is not a puritan Point Guard. He averaged just 3.6 APG last season, which is an obvious room for improvement. I can’t imagine Ainge picked him up on the hope that he would mimic last year’s performance.

It wouldn’t hurt for Boston to sign a veteran PG like Kenny Anderson or Rod Strickland to show Sebastian the ropes. West isn’t much better so that mentoring would have to come from coach Doc Rivers. Telfair has yet to mature from his high-school days. If he were just supposed to be a bench player then he’d be a fine transaction. But to be the staring PG on a team, you have to look to dish the ball before trying to shoot it.

Some added experience

Aside from Theo Ratliff, the Celtics lack a player who has been around past the 98-99 season.

Their entire bench is highly inexperienced and it cost them last season. Despite the 33-49 record, the Celtics played a ton of close games. They always competed in their games but finished badly and gave away several wins. In particular, Al Jefferson was especially bad in the 4th quarter and overtime.

The Celtics can’t be a legitimate contender unless they bring in some players who have been in tight situations before. With Olowokandi not playing and Raef LaFrentz starting, the Celtics’ most experience player coming off the bench was Brian Scalabrine at four years playing time.

A scorer off the bench

Boston has several hustle players off the bench: Kendrick Perkins, Orien Green, and Tony Allen are some. But none of them are in there to put points on the scoreboard.

The closest thing Boston has to a go-to guy off the bench is Al Jefferson. Jefferson has a decent hook shot and a good low-post game, but he’s ineffective from beyond 15 feet. He has potential to become what they’re looking for, but for now he’s only adequate.

A David Wesley or Tim Thomas would add three-point shooting off the bench and an extra 10 points to backup Paul Pierce. Most teams have players who only look to score and lack the hustle, but Boston is different. They just need to add some scoring to be a proficient team in the East.

As it stands, Boston is slightly above average. With Pierce and Szczerbiak they have a guaranteed 45 points a night, and their frontcourt of Ryan Gomes and Theo Ratliff is stable. Now if they can just a three-point specialist and some veterans they could be a playoff team for sure.

Other Articles:

Sebastian Telfair for a Draft Pick = Bad Deal (6/29/06)