CELTICS

The Boston Celtics are arguably the most storied franchise in all of professional basketball and would also rank quite high on the all-time sports list. The Celtics were a dominating force in the 1960s like nothing ever before (eight consecutive championships, 11 in 13 years) and then behind players like Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish, the team won another three rings in the 1980s. The new version of the Celtics is led by Paul Pierce, a shooting guard with a nice jump shot, an explosive first step, and a knack for scoring at the biggest moments. After missing the playoffs for six consecutive years in the 1990s, the team was two games from a finals appearance before eventually losing to the New Jersey Nets. Since then, the team has been eliminated in the semifinals and the first round, and last year’s team, although they made the playoffs, finished an amazing ten games under .500 and could be considered the worst team ever to make the playoffs in the NBA. The team still has its star in Pierce but the team will need to find a way to improve all-around if they want to compete in the Eastern Conference this season.

Doc Rivers, a former player in the league, took over as coach of the Celtics in the off-season and is looking to shake things up a bit. Rivers will look to implement his own system on offense and defense and will undoubtedly look for the same type of effort from his players that he gave when he played in the league not too many years ago. The Celtics were relatively quiet in the off-season until early August with their only big “move” being that they resigned center/forward Mark Blount. Late in the off-season, the Celtics decided to send Chris Mihm, Marcus Banks, Chucky Adkins and a second round pick to the Lakers in exchange for PG Gary Payton, SF Rick Fox and a future first round pick. The move will likely rejuvenate Payton and Fox after neither played well in 2003 with the Lakers and could propel the Celtics from afterthought to top five team in the depleted Eastern conference. The team didn’t lose any free agents either so their focus was turned to the draft. Danny Ainge, an ex-Celtic himself who is now the general manager, made some swift and bold moves last year to acquire extra first round picks for this year’s draft and the team had three picks in the first 25 picks and another in the second round. The team took PF Al Jefferson at 15 and SGs Delonte West and Tony Allen back to back at 24 and 25. The second round pick, number 40 overall, was used on PF Justin Reed.

Payton will immediately take over at the PG slot with Pierce joining him in the backcourt. Ricky Davis and Rick Fox will likely share time with Jiri Welsch at the small forward position and rookie Al Jefferson looks ready to start in the league at power forward already. Newly resigned Mark Blount and Raef LaFrentz will split time at the center spot if each can stay healthy. The Celtics don’t have a lot of depth on the bench but their starting five can compete with any of the other teams in the Eastern conference. The Celtics have been placed in the newly realigned Atlantic division along with the likes of the New Jersey Nets, the New York Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Toronto Raptors, so the Celtics have to be thinking that have a realistic chance at earning a top three seed in the playoffs if they can just win their division. The Nets have practically given up on their chances to win a championship simply to cut salary under new ownership and the 76ers still seem to be “Allen Iverson and four other no-namers.” The Raptors are looking to be competitive this season and the Knicks have made a few moves in the off-season that will help their club but the Celtics, the same group that made the playoffs last year at 36-46, are still likely the favorites to win the automatic playoff spot guaranteed to the winner of the division.

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