Where to begin?
For the Boston Celtics, the offseason rebuilding process began sometime in mid-January. After a miserable stretch of 18 consecutive losses in early 2007, the Celtics were out of the playoff hunt by All-Star Weekend, and Boston's fans were left with little to do but wait with bated breath for May 22.
That was the night of the NBA draft lottery, an event that decided, in large part, the futures of Boston and the rest of the league's 14 worst franchises. Though the Celtics had a 39 percent chance of drawing a top-two pick and drafting a franchise player named Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, the ping-pong balls had other plans, sending both superstars to the Pacific Northwest and dropping Boston to fifth.
Still, life could have been worse for the Celtics, who headed into the June draft night with veteran leadership in Paul Pierce and Wally Szczerbiak, emerging talent in Al Jefferson and Gerald Green, and the league's fifth-best rookie on the horizon.
Or so we thought.
When Director of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge shipped Szczerbiak and the No. 5 pick to Seattle on draft night, it looked like just another foolish Ainge trade. Shooting guard Ray Allen, now 32, was set to join Gary Payton, Raef LaFrentz and Tom Gugliotta on the long list of pointless veteran acquisitions the Celtics had made during Ainge's tenure. Once again, the C's appeared to be mortgaging their future. And for what?
That question was answered a month later, when on July 31, Boston completed one of the biggest trades in NBA history. Ainge traded Jefferson, Green, three other players, and two future first-round picks to land Minnesota big man Kevin Garnett, a 10-time All-Star and the NBA's leading rebounder in each of the last four seasons.
In a matter of weeks, Danny Ainge turned the Celtics from an NBA laughingstock into a legitimate Eastern Conference title contender. Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Miami all have their stars, but all of a sudden, Boston has three.
Totaling 32 seasons of experience and zero minutes of NBA Finals play (although all three reached Game 7 of the conference finals on their own), the Celtics' trio of Pierce, Allen and Garnett is certainly a hungry, veteran group. But the question is whether three stars alone are enough to win a title.
Boston's more famous Big Three - Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, who led the team to three titles in the 1980s - were notable not only for their own personal achievements, but for the outstanding supporting cast that surrounded them.
Tiny Archibald and Bill Walton are Hall of Famers, while Cedric Maxwell was the MVP of the 1981 Finals. The late Dennis Johnson is one of the best guards in Celtics history, while even Ainge, a former Celtic himself, was an All-Star once. Fans of the current Celtics would be wise to take a step back from the delirium of the Garnett trade. In all likelihood, it takes more than three.
The two best players left over from the Allen and Garnett deals are point guard Rajon Rondo and forward Kendrick Perkins. Rondo was a second-team All-Rookie selection last season who may still be a little raw at 21. The 6-foot-10 Perkins started a career-high 53 games in his fourth season last year while battling through injuries.
Ainge recently added a trio of journeymen to fill out his roster - guard Eddie House, forward James Posey and center Scot Pollard (a teammate of Pierce's from his days with the Kansas Jayhawks). While none is expected to be a star in Boston, they all should provide reliable support for the new Big Three.
And while Ainge missed out on Georgetown star Jeff Green when he sent Seattle the No. 5, he did find two gems with the 32nd and 35th picks in the draft: sharp-shooting guard Gabe Pruitt, who helped lead the USC Trojans past Durant's Texas Longhorns to the Sweet Sixteen, and power forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis, a former SEC Player of the Year at LSU.
All in all, it's an interesting mix of players, with a good balance between promising youngsters and established veterans. While the revamped Celtics roster may not be ready for a Finals appearance right away, one thing's for sure: it's getting a lot closer.
