As we gear up for the playoffs and match-ups become clearer, I'll be ramping up my coverage and analysis of the Celtics and their quest to repeat as NBA champions. The road to another title will be much harder than it was last spring, as the Celtics will have to best a superior field with a potentially depleted squad. Last year's championship Celtics team was miles ahead of everyone else, even if 9 of 10 talking heads with opinions on ESPN picked the Lakers to win the Finals (props to Tim Legler for choosing wisely), however this year's team has fallen back into the pack and is currently drafting behind several other very talented squads. What the hell happened?
Sixty three percent of participants in a survey I made up for this column chose "lack of Posey" as the answer to that last question, and frankly I can't say I blame them for saying so. It's no secret that the Celtics miss Posey's versatility, length, toughness, shooting and so on, but I think the improvement of the Lakers, Magic, and Cavaliers has more to do with Boston's struggles to stay ahead of the pack than any holes in their own roster. With the exception of Detroit, every other elite NBA team got better after the 2008 Finals. Houston got Artest, San Antonio got Roger Mason, Dwyane Wade returned, Denver added Billups, Portland added Oden, Orlando added Pietrus, the Hornets added Posey, Los Angeles got Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza back, and pesky Cleveland got Mo Freaking Williams. Though not all of the names on this list are stars (though some are), every guy I just mentioned fills a key hole and has improved his team from the previous year. The Celtics added nobody during the offseason, choosing instead to feast off of some table scraps in late February to help them try and get over the hump this June.
The crazy part in all of this is that the Celtics were still (until fairly recently) the top team in the Association for a while. They're playing better offense this year while still bringing the characteristic (albeit sometimes unsettlingly spotty) defensive intensity and are still right there with everyone else as the regular season goes into its final weeks. Leon Powe, Glen Davis, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins have all gotten better since last year, and with a significantly healthier Ray Allen on board Boston has managed to fill the void left by Posey. The problem is simply that everyone else has caught up.
This year's championship run will be a different kind of challenge for the Celtics. As I mentioned before, last year's team was miles ahead of the competition which worked out just fine for their title run. If I had things my way, they'd be in the same boat again this year. Unfortunately that isn't the case, but that doesn't mean that the Celtics can't win. If the Celtics can conserve some energy by letting another team take the lead (in this case Cleveland) and get healthy in time for the grueling home stretch, I like their chances just as much as anyone else's. I promise that there will be more to come soon, but for now I am tired and need to put some energy into my gig that actually pays the bills...
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