How Good Could the 2013 Celtics Have Been?

[CelticD]

The 2012 Celtics lost to the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. I believe the Celtics were up by as much as 11 points in the game, but the theme of the series always seemed to be that the Celtics ran out of gas down the stretch.

During the offseason, Ray Allen of course took his talents to South Beach but the C's had already signed some much needed bench help in Jason Terry. They also added some serviceable vets like Jeff Green, Courtney Lee, Leandro Barbosa and a rookie lottery-level talent in Jared Sullinger.

With Ray Allen being the only major piece lost, the Celtics looked to be a better team than the 2012 bunch. Doc Rivers even made comments in training camp telling his team that "He felt good about them", and that if the league was 10 vs 10 "They'd beat everyone.", speaking to the added depth and relief that the aging starters would have.

Things just never worked out that way though. The team saw Rondo, Barbosa, and Sullinger go down with season ending injuries, and lose in the first round to the New York Knicks.

Had all personnel been healthy, could that team have beaten the Heat?

[alley oop]

They needed a better backup for KG, but needed their mid-level exception to get something better, and it was used to get Courtney Lee (to Replace Ray Allen).

[dwlefty13]

If I remember correctly, the Celtics were 20-23 with a healthy Rondo in the lineup prior to injury. The team was just too old at this point, with two of the top three players being 35 or older. Top that with lack of big man depth to spell KG especially once Sully got injured, the team was cooked. Don't make me get started on inconsistent Jeff Green!

At its absolute best, they would have been a borderline 50 win team with one playoff series victory. No way they beat a HEAT team with LeBron, Wade, Bosh in their prime with adding Ray Allen off the bench of three point spark. Having said that, the Celtics team played about as well as it could given its circumstances, and thus being a .500 team is what they would have ended up.

[LilRip]

Writing was on the wall, imo.

The big what-if for me was what if everybody was healthy in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Injuries marred what could've been but I think that team with a healthy Shaq was a monster of a team.

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

That was a weird year. Never had a proper functioning back court that held us back. When Bradley got health both Rondo and Barbossa went down. Squad never clicked into high gear.

[TheTruthFot18]

KG mentoring KO would have made him the new Dirk for sure.

MVP/ROY??