very positive, gant. i hope you’re right and why not!

Oops. I’m out of practice. :)

Please consider the second #5 as a homage to the league’s real MVP, Kevin Garnett.

Great read Gant, welcome back.

My only concern is your comment.

The real league MVP is co-shared between Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. One without the other and we do not have a 17th banner.

Look forward to more stuff during the season.

Cheers

Aussie

Thanks Aussie. It’s great to be back on Celticsblog!

JB, I don’t mean to imply the peripheral players won’t be a factor. They will. But they’re the icing. The starters are the cake, and are the ones who will predominantly determine if another title is won.

In answer to the other questions: Egos?- No problem. Pierce and Allen continue to play D?- Si. How much better are we than Cleveland?- Enough better.

Repeating is hard and there are no guarantees. But if you have to pick one team to win it all this year, you have to go with the Celtics.

As for age related deterioration- inevitably that will happen sometime, but there’s been no indication it will be this coming year.

Nice read. But…
You can guffaw all you want, but without Posey, P.J. and (to a MUCH lesser degree) Cassell, we’re a thinner team. Period. Doesn’t matter that the others get better. We need REAL replacements for Posey and P.J. (not as much Cassell, but still), and we haven’t found them yet. Simply stated, we’re not as good as last year. We’re still very, very good — just not as good.

We could argue this forever and not solve anything. I side with Big Easy – good team, but one that’s going to demand far more minutes from the Big Three because we’re very thin off the bench.
The trio isn’t young enough to weather extended minutes.

As far as the bench, of the those three vets only Posey was around fort the first half of the season. PJ Brown was pretty much a non factor until his great performance in the playoffs. So looking at the early season, all you have to do is think about what the team needs to replace Posey— and in particular the small forward Posey rather than the power forward Posey.

Long term if the team has holes they’ll fill them at mid-season just like past year.

You take into account one full year together, the invaluable playoff experience, and increased athleticism; and there is reason to think this year’s team will actually be better than last year’s.
It may not show in the record- 66 wins is a lot- but by playoff time this group may be more ready to go than the 07-08 team. — no Atlanta surprises in the first round.

I see more answers than questions on the Celtics.

1. #5—12 minutes. Danny remarked that they didn’t like Posey at the 4 and that it really didn’t work so they really didn’t use it with the purpose of going small. Danny said the one time it really worked was game 4 in the finals, the greatest comeback in NBA finals history.

2. The one thing that concerns me that wasn’t mentioned in the article is a backup for Perk. I think Powe and BBD can do the job during the regular season, but I wouldn’t count on them in the playoffs. I read today where PJB might consider coming back at midseason. And even if he’s not a true center he has the length and smarts to take care of that.

Nice column. I like the positive attitude and have grown tired of hearing from the-glass-is-half-empty crowd.

Great discussion piece Gant. No real way to agree or disagree with all that is said untill the season actually starts. Lets indeed pray some of the gambles – POB and Miles pay off. If only one of them can come up to their potential – then the loss of Posey could be compensated.
I missed in yours and the comments one more subject – Doc. Two years ago it was can Doc – last year he was a hero in his rotations and managing the playing time – especially of the (then) big 3. Which Doc will we see this year?

It will be anything but easy, but with relatively good health among the starters (especiallt PG&A), I see many places where they can should improve from last year to make up for the loss of Posey.

Perk and Rondo for starters should continue to develope. A healthy more experienced Tony Allen with a more consistent role,along with Powe, Baby and Pruitt advancements, and the possibilities from one or two of the rookies, O’Bryant and Miles are really promising. Scal should not be dismissed. If he can find his shot (of course iffy), since he does so many of the underappreciated things well, he could have a bigger role.

As I was saying there are many ways they could be even better than last year, even from PG&A familiarity. The hardest ingredient for them to compensate for, one way or another, will be the individual, and especially team defensive glue that Posey had a big part in during the playoffs.

Yes JB, hard work, team-focused commitment will need to be there, and last year’s success could subtly distract them from the kind of single mindedness they had in 2007-2008. But my guess is that Garnett, Allen and Pierce will be driven by their character and their bonds formed last year that will be reinforced by having targets on their backs all 2008-2009. Combine with that their joyful experience with success, the urgency that comes from their knowledge that they have a limited window of opportunity and, I suspect, the players’ belief in the tradition that great Celtic teams don’t win just one championship, but compete for it all pretty much every year, and they will have more than the motivation they need.

With a second championship they will become a more full-fledged member of the club occupied by the other Celtic championship teams of the 50’s & 60’s, the early 70’s and the 80’s. I think they’ll have a good shot at it.