Boston Celtics 2012-2013 Season Preview

      The NBA season is just under 40 days from getting started.With that being the case it's only natural for me to do a preview of my favorite team. The Celtics' 2011-2012 season ended with a game 7 defeat to the eventual champion Miami Heat. Many thought that the Celtics overachieved for a team that started 0-3 and went into the All-Star break at 15-17. In the second half of the season the Celtics were among the top teams with a record of 24-10 to end the season. With the 4th spot in the playoffs they took out the Atlanta Hawks in 6 games, then finished off the Philadelphia 76ers in 7. After that we all know what happened. After the loss in the Conference Finals many people speculated whether Danny Ainge would break up the Big 3 with KG and Ray Allen being in the last year of their contracts. Well KG immediately ended any specualation about him being a free agent with him signing a 3 year $34 million deal. Ray however took a different route and decided to sign with the Miami Heat.Danny then signed Jason Terry,Courtney Lee, Dionte Christmas,Jason Collins and recently Darko Milicic. He resigned Brandon Bass, Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox. He drafted Jared Sullinger,Fab Melo and Kris Joseph. At the end it turned out to be a great offseason for the Celtics now lets hope it can be a great regular season.
        Now you would think that being a Celtics fan I think the Celtics will win it every year but that's not the case. I tend to look at things from a numbers standpoint and while I still love the Celtics the numbers just don't add up to a championship for us. With that being said they still have a shot to win it but thats only if a number of things happen. Rajon Rondo showed us in the playoffs what he is truly capable of when he's fully engaged but while he played phenomenal in the playoffs he still hasn't showed that he can be trusted to do that in the regular season. The days of Paul Pierce carrying the offense are gone and now Rondo has to be the guy that can carry this team for 48 minutes night in and night out. While his numbers may not suggest that he's an elite player in this league many people would say he is.
        The most improved aspect of this team is easily the bench and Danny really made it a point to bolster a bench that last year was pretty bad. Last year the Celtics' bench was ranked 29th in the league with an average of about 21 points per game. Well with the additions of Jason Terry,Courtney Lee, Jared Sullinger and the return of Jeff Green.With Avery Bradley being out until late december at the least Courtney Lee and Jason Terry will be very important. The Celtics' bench on paper looks like one of the best in the league.
         With all of the new additions it's really hard to determine which one will be the most important. While I love the acquisition of Jason Terry there has to be some concern with him coming off his worst shooting season since his last season in Atlanta. Though the bench scoring and leadership he will provide will outweigh his possible shooting splits.The most maligned and criticized signing by Ainge had to be the resigning of Jeff Green. Most people were in awe that Danny  Ainge would give a 4 year $34 million contract to a player coming off of season ending heart surgery. While he did overpay there was really no other option for him with there not being much left in the Free Agent market. It has been written/announced multiple times that Jeff Green over the course of his career has statiscally made his team worse when he's on the court. While that may be statiscally true it's not Jeff's fault. In his time with the Thunder Jeff Green found himself playing the Power Forward position most of the time he was playing at the same time of Kevin Durant. Jeff Green is 6'8-6'9 ft and around 230 pounds,does that seem like the build of a NBA power forward to you? For Jeff Green he was nightly going up against guys who were 40-50 lbs bigger than him, it's like asking Paul Milsap to play center every game. With all of the flaws Green has in his game he's still 6'9,athletic and can run the floor, none of those thing were present on this team last year. He'll also be able to give Pierce some much needed rest before the playoffs. I expect Terry and Green to have the biggest impact among the newcomers.

      Obviously the most important aspect of this team is the starters but theres really nothing different to say about them. We know what we're getting every night from Pierce and KG. Rondo and Bass will do their thing in the pick and pop. When Bradley comes back he'll hopefully return to his pesky defensive ways and continue to make backdoor cuts.But what really needs to improve is the offensive rebounding. Last year they were at the bottom of the league in offensive rebounding and were historically bad when it came to Offensive Rebounding %. Sully,Wilcox,Collins and Darko will hep with the rebounding but they wont be a juggernaut on the glass and that's to be expected as they've never been one.
        Rookies + Doc Rivers = Not much playing time. That's been Doc's philosophy for the past couple of years. I think this season will be different. This is easily the best draft the Celtics have had since the 2006 draft. Jared Sullinger,Fab Melo and Dionte Christmas will all have chances to play with this team but they also need to contribute. Jared Sullinger is the most NBA ready prospect the Celtics have and will most likely contribute the most to the team. Sully will rebound,defend and give them some points while proving the 20 teams who passed on him that they were severely wrong.
        The Celtics regular season success hinges on them fending off the young teams who're hungry to knock off the Celtics from Atlantic Division supremacy. The Knicks,Nets,Sixers and Raptors all improved in hopes of winning the Division. They also still have to deal with Miami but the games against them in the regular season aren't very important compared to the playoffs if you take a look at the last 2 years.Even with the improvements the Celtics are still the class of the division and I expect Boston to win it. KG and Pierce minutes will go down. Expect KG to be in the mid to high twenties while Pierce will probably be in the low 30s when it comes to minutes.If Rondo can have the kind of stat line he had in the playoffs and improve his shooting splits he could be at the top of the MVP voting and really surprise a lot of people.With that said their regular season win total could be anywhere from 47-54 wins from the Celtics while they play their tenacious brand of basketball. Expect basketball in Boston to be very exciting this year.