That Might Be It For Now

Yesterday I left off saying we have to see who else the Celtics sign before training camp, but after looking at the roster and reading Ainge's comments I realized that we well might be looking at the opening day squad for these '08-09 Boston Celtics. If both Giddens and Walker sign (and there was a rumor that the C's want Bill to play in Europe for a year) that will give Boston 14 players under contract. Given Ainge's previous statements about leaving a roster spot open, there seems a good chance that the Green won't be having any more additions this Summer.

And at the end of the day I'd be fine with that. There is a strong possibility they will be able to add someone of value during the season if need be. However, it is slightly irksome to look at the depth chart behind Pierce, Ray Allen and Rondo - House, TA, Pruitt, Giddens and Walker won't probably make opponents fearful. But as we learned last year, you needn't be feared to be effective. Still, among the five backups at the point and swing positions only two are proven: House and TA. What the C's need is for one of the three unprovens to step up and perform at a capable level. Hopefully that's not asking too much.

Where the Celtics do have considerable depth is with their bigs. This opens up the possibility of playing Garnett some at small forward, which he is fully capable of doing. That could create a potential mismatch nightmare. It also is always possible that Ainge could deal away "minor" contracts (like the ones TA and House just signed, or even Scal's) along with someone like Big Baby to get a better player in return.

So the flexibility is still there. One idea that I think could be highly worthwhile is for Doc (yes, we can call him that now) to use Ray as the sixth man, and for TA to start. First off, this will give the Celtics guaranteed scoring off the bench (I'd argue Powe automatically supplies this as well.) Secondly, it would give Doc a concrete way of curbing Ray's minutes, which were too high for most of last year. And any scuttlebutt about Ray coming off the bench should be hushed when we consider that Ginobili was a sixth man last year, playing only 31 minutes a game at the absolute peak of his brilliance. Ray can swallow the sixth man pill, and could be better for it.