Celtics: really a NBA title contender?
Now that Kevin Garnett seems to be the face of the Boston Celtics franchise (with a new three-year, $51 million extension), the Celtics look to greatly improve upon their 24 wins last season. While Garnett, Paul Pierce, and recently acquired All-star Ray Allen, that shouldn’t be a problem. However, satisfying the expectations of fans might be.
Our unofficial TrueHoop plug of the day comes in a post about Kevin Pritchard on the philosophy of the San Antonio Spurs. That is, “Get three superstars and then fill the roster with guys willing to go through a wall to win.”
Although a few years older, the trio of Garnett-Pierce-Allen may beat out Duncan-Parker-Ginobili, if not match it’s level of talent. On the other hand, the Spurs have dominated the decade, and the Celtics don’t have much left to acquire “guys willing to go through a wall to win.”
After coming to terms with Eddie House, the team now has 12 players under salary, thanks to rookies Glen Davis, Brandon Wallace and Gabe Pruitt. Seeing as that’s one-fourth of their roster, the Celtics have five players who qualify to play with their D-League affiliates.
The Celtics have another $3.8 million of its MLE to spend on new players. Considering $56 million of salary cap belong to the Big Three, the team doesn’t have a whole lot of cash to throw, or much left talent to trade off after sending five players and two draft picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Danny Ainge will look to target another couple of veteran players to add to his team. He seems to seriously consider adding Dikembe Mutombo, among others. Luckily, Ainge making two high-roller trades this past two months has brought a change in what players think about playing in Boston.
With only a couple of their first-round draft picks the next five years, and very little salary cap space, the Celtics will need to either see a big improvement from their bench players, or hope that quality players take a large paycut in order to play with the Celtics (think the Karl Malone and Gary Payton with the Los Angeles Lakers).
Consider that the All-Star trio has a short window to win (within three or four years), the fans in Boston probably won’t add their 17th NBA championship. However, they could still win their division. That gives them either the 3rd or 4th seed, and probably home-court advantage. But the Celtics will need to fill out their rotation and get some lucky breaks before advancing to the Finals, much less beat the Spurs, Phoenix Suns, or Dallas Mavericks.
