Monday, April 18, 2005

Celtics win the Atlantic Division

Congratulations to Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers, and the Boston Celtics, who are Atlantic Division champions for the first time in 13 years. Frankly, they've accomplished this in large measure because of the weakness in the division, but not many people predicted them to win it anyway. And they clinched it themselves, on the court, with their win in Toronto last night.

They've won the division, but they've not yet clinched a home-court advantage in the first round of the play-offs. As things stand right now, the Celtics go in as the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference play-offs, and Indiana goes in as the 6th seed. The Celtics are 2 games ahead of the Pacers with each team having 2 games remaining. If the Celtics lose both of their games and Indiana wins both of theirs, the Pacers would have the home-court by virtue of a better head-to-head record against the Celtics, even though Boston would technically be the 3rd seed and Indiana the 6th. So the Celtics have a magic number of 1 to clinch the home-court - 1 Celtic win or 1 Indiana loss wraps it up.

When Danny Ainge took over in May of 2003, they were in the process of being swept out of the second round of the Eastern Conference Play-offs by the New Jersey Nets. They finished the 2003 season at 44-38, with an old roster. They're finishing 2005 with a record that will be at least 45-37, possibly as good as 47-35. While they took a step back record-wise in 2004, they have currently got a team that's going to finish with a better record than the team 2 years ago, and they've gotten more talented and significantly younger in the process.




Celtics Roster Change - 2003-2005
2003 Roster2004 Roster

NameAgeNameAge

Holdovers

Paul Pierce25.55Paul Pierce27.55

Antoine Walker26.72Antoine Walker28.72

Mark Blount27.42Mark Blount29.42

Replacements

Tony Delk29.25Gary Payton36.77

Walter McCarty29.24Ricky Davis25.6

Eric Williams30.79Tony Allen23.3

Tony Battie27.22Marcus Banks23.45

J.R. Bremer22.61Al Jefferson20.32

Kedrick Brown22.12Raef LaFrentz28.92

Grant Long37.14Delonte West21.77

Mark Bryant38.02Kendrick Perkins20.47

Bimbo Coles35.02Justin Reed23.29

Vin Baker31.44

Average

29.4325.8


That is a roster that is not only better than it was two years ago, it is much younger, and carries with it vastly more potential for improvement. Do they have, in Marcus Banks, Al Jefferson, Tony Allen, Delonte West and Kendrick Perkins, the foundation of an eventual championship team? Will any of these players hoist banner number 17? There's no way to know that now. But it was obvious and knowable that no one who was on that team two years ago was the right answer. There's no doubt about it - Danny Ainge has, in his first two years, done an outstanding job as the GM of the Celtics.

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