After All The Trade Noise, Some Things Don't Change

It's possible to suppose that a lot has changed for the Celtics after all the trade noise that just went down. Actually... no. Most of what's happened has been on the periphery, with little to no effect on the team's bottom line. What is that bottom line? Championship. Of course.

Due to Danny's activity, the backups for our starters have changed, along with one starting position (5). The backup to Rondo's backup is now Carlos. Good (but not exactly a big deal). Of course, the starting center has changed... but not from what it actually was most of this season (a round robin of big bodies). Whether it's Krstic or Shaq or JO starting vs. backing up... doesn't matter a whole lot. Meanwhile, the backup for KG remains..... Baby, and whoever else we can scrounge up. Paul's backup (Green) is the one place where we can say there's been a substantial improvement (apparently... so far... crossing-fingers), since PP basically had none prior to the trades.

So is all this just "noise?" Apart from Green, yeah... it's mostly noise because none of it makes much difference to the bottom line (championship). What was true before is true now. The championship depends on the health of our key players. That means, in descending order:
- The Big Four
- One able, able-bodied center (please)
- 2-3 other guys

It is still true now that any loss of any one of the Big 4 will = big, big trouble for this team. If it's KG or RR, we might as well forget about it this year. If it's Paul or Ray, it's a huge hit from which the team will be unlikely to recover.

And of course, we need a center... any reasonable one will do. And we need Green, Delonte (or his backup), Baby. But the health of these guys is far less critical (obviously) than the Big 4's. And as you go deeper into the bench, all the moves that the team just made.... well.... they just don't amount to a very big hill of beans. We're talking backups to backups. Guys who won't change the outcome.

What Danny did was improve the team's insurance a little. And yes, he did acquire a really good backup for Paul. (Whew.) But that's about it. The championship still depends on one and only one thing: health. Specifically – the health of the Big Four first and foremost.... plus a center and a couple/three other guys.

As good as any team is, it still needs luck to go all the way. Cs are no exception. We will need SOME health luck to get the ring this time. As always.