Wait Till Next Year

Yes, it's taken 36 hours to really come to grips with the fact that the roller-coaster ride is over. The Celtics were a good but flawed team, that played better and longer than anyone could have expected. And in the end, New Jersey exploited their flaws and forced them to play worse basketball than they played all season. My hat is off to them, and I hope the Nets represent the East well in the Finals, where they'll be major underdogs against the Kings, or more likely, an unholy alliance of the Lakers, NBC, and the refs (did you see Kobe elbowing Mike Bibby in the face at the end of Game 6? Did you see the ref looking right at it and not calling anything?)

So now we start thinking about next year. Pierce and Walker will be back for sure; past that, nothing is certain. The Celtics will try to resign Rodney Rogers for some reason; he won't be worth the money that they'll have to pay him. Kenny's locked into a 63-year contract thanks to Pitino, so trading him is out of the question unless they can find some real dumb team to take him on (Hello, Clippers!). As for big acquisitions, there aren't a lot to be made. My Dad suggested the Celtics talk to Miami about Alonzo Mourning; this sent me into immediate chin-scratching mode, but I don't think it will happen because a) the Celtics ownership doesn't seem to be in a take-on-big-contracts mode and b) I can't see Pat Riley trading him. Alonzo has one year left on his contract for $20.6 million, for the record.

The most intriguing roster subplot of the offseason will be Kedrick Brown. The rookie showed promise in very limited P.T. this year. Speculation is that he'll pick up some minutes from Eric Williams in the next season. We'll see; I'd hate to see that the Celtics had 3 first-round picks last year and got nothing for them (Joe Forte played next to nothing and Joe Johnson was traded for Delk and Rogers). GM Chris Wallace has his hands full, that's for sure.