Yes the Celtics are old. I’m sure I’ m not the first person to notice. Towards the end of the season the Celtics did what they’ve been doing for the past couple of years…rest the old tired bodies of their veteran players. The Celtics are by far the oldest team playing for a title this year with an average age of 32.8. The Celtics have been looking old to me for the past few years but I’ve never counted them out because they always turn it on during the playoffs. This year I’m counting them out. This is the first year that I’ve looked at the Celtics and thought that that they just look too old to be contenders. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett have been the league a combined 44 years. While all of those years means tons of experience for them it also means a lot of wear and tear on the body.
This Celtics team just doesn’t seem like they have it in them this year. To win a championship I think that obviously the Celtics need to be healthy and healthy has not been the word to describe them of late. Injuries to their big men should probably have them worried. There is no way that that the Celtics can depend of Shaq who by the way has been in the league since 1992. Shaq has been injured a lot of the season and may not be ready for the first game of the playoffs. Anybody who thought that Shaq would be able to replace Perkins after he was traded was fooling themselves. It’s not because I think that Perkins is a great player, because I definitely think that he’s just average, it’s because Shaq is old. There is no way that he can consistently give you 20 minutes a game. So who do the Celtics have now…Nenad Krstic and Jermaine O’neal? Let’s face it the Celtics are no longer a force in the middle and I’m having a hard time believing that they can slow down the likes of Miami, Chicago, or even New York.
Once again let me just say that I know from past experience that you should probably never count the Celtics out. They have hall of fame veterans and one of the best point guards in the league in Rajon Rondo. Once the playoffs start for them they will be given the opportunity to shut up everybody (including me) who thinks that they are too old to compete. With that said I think that the Celtics will lose in the first round to the Knicks. I just can’t see the Celtics beating them in a 7 game series. If they prove me wrong I’m okay with that, but in the words of Charles Barkley…”I may be wrong, but I doubt it.”