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The acquisition of Kevin Garnett has greatly changed the face of the Boston Celtics. No longer one of the league's doormats, KG (along with newly acquired Ray Allen and Boston stalwart Paul Pierce) give the Celtics the best threesome in the league. Problem for the Celtics is, basketball is a five player sport.

Having three All-Stars will certainly make the Celtics one of the favorites in the league. Certainly in the East, where their main competition would seem to be the Bulls, Pistons and perhaps the Raptors. Yet it may not be preordained that the Celtics even represent the East in the Finals. Looking at the match-ups with those aforementioned teams will show why.

Depth

The Bulls can come out you in waves. Tyrus Thomas gives way to Joakim Noah. Nocioni replaces the scoring of Deng and Gordon. The Raptors employ two fantastic point guards. Even the Pistons have some scoring punch off the bench (in McDyess, once he returns to being six man extraordinaire). Behind the Big Three in Boston, there is not much else. It is indicative of the state of the Celtic bench that the team considered signing Reggie Miller OUT OF RETIREMENT. And forget if something actually happens to the Big Three (no team is more vulnerable if an injury occurs).

Coaching

As any true Boston fan will tell you, Doc Rivers is not a great coach. Nice guy. Good motivator. Great dresser. Very good on TV (when he broad casted). But drawing up X's and O's? Not so much. His teams fail to properly defend the high screen and roll. He never set on one rotation for any long stretch last year.

The problem is he gets too much credit for his work in Orlando, when he was able to get a team that had just lost superstar Grant Hill into the playoffs (forgetting the fact that the team had a BETTER superstar in Tracy McGrady playing at the same time).

In a playoff series, in the 4th quarter and especially at the end of games, coaching is tantamount. Remember, the Lakers had Kobe and Shaq for four years together, never once advancing to the Finals, until Phil Jackson came to town. When the team needs an offensive play drawn up, or a defensive stop, it is on the coach's shoulder to provide them with the game plan. To this point, Doc Rivers has not shown an aptitude for that aspect of the coaching job (though to be fair, Flip Saunders, Scott Skiles and Sam Mitchell has not had that much success in the playoffs either).

Point guard / Center

Lost in the shadow of the Celtics big three are

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