Doc Rivers says core group will be important for the Boston Celtics next season – NBA Update
Doc Rivers has said that the Boston Celtics will be heavily reliant on the core group of players they currently possess when the NBA season 2011-2012 starts. The head coach said he expected to get new players to gel in with the
old, but the ones who are already present in Boston will have a big role to play next season.
The Celtics only have six players under contract for next season. Apart from the Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, the Celtics can count on star point guard Rajon Rondo, guard Avery Bradley and centre Jermaine
O’Neal on December 9th when the training camps start.
In addition to these, Jeff Green is a restricted free agent that Boston will try and hold onto. This means that the Celtics will have to sign a bunch of new players just to fill up the spaces and Rivers accepts the transition could
prove tough.
"Listen, we don't know who we're going to have yet," he said. "Obviously, we have a list and we're going after that list. And so when you're integrating half a team to another team, it's going to be [difficult]. But we're not the
only group that's doing that.”
Although the Celtics head coach was right in saying that Boston wasn’t the only team is such a position, their situation is by far the most precarious. They have probably the least amount of players signed on and already have a
bloated wage bill. This could make things tough to even get their hands on new talent, but Rivers hopes to get by with the old lot.
“Like Danny said, we do have a core group, that are familiar with what we do. Obviously, they are going to be extremely important at the start of the season to help carry whatever new guys we have.” He told ESPN.
The coach though isn’t one to make excuses and said that whatever team President Danny Ainge gives him, he will work with it and get the side ready by the start of the season, expected to be on the 25th of December.
"I expect us on the first game to be ready. We may have to put in more work to get there.”
Rivers proposed double training sessions and other intensive measures to help the team get ready and get familiar with the new faces as soon as possible.
The real worry for Celtics fans though is how competitive can Boston be with such stop gap measures. The Celtics Big Three showed visible signs of age slowing them down last time in the playoffs and the fans were hoping for some
quality support players to complement them next season.
Instead it’s likely they will have to make do with whatever they can get their hands on.
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