Boston Celtics: Prediciting the Role and Impact Courtney Lee Will Have

In one of the shrewdest moves of the offseason, GM Danny Ainge sent useless roster space in Sasha Pavlovic and Sean Willams, young unproven players E'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson and two second round picks to his old teammate and now favorite person to make deals with--Kevin McHale, the coach of the Houston Rockets. All the Celtics got in return was a proven talent and scorer in Courtney Lee.

Lee joins Rajon Rondo, Avery Bradley and Jason Terry to form one of the deepest and most talented backcourts in the NBA. With all of this depth and talent though, where exactly does Lee fit in?

Luckily, he has a few factors working in his favor as a Celtic. First of all, he may have a chance to start because incumbent starter Avery Bradley may not be ready for the start of the season and Lee's only real other competition for the starting spot--Jason Terry--will prefer to come off the bench. 

Once Bradley returns though, he will justifiably slide back into his starting spot, relegating Lee to the bench. 

But even though Lee will be coming off the bench, he still has one of the best coaches in Doc Rivers who will be able to find him a lot of minutes. He may not be the first off the bench with Jason Terry and Jeff Green also competing for that role, but regardless, he will still play 20-30 minutes every night. 

In this time, he will no doubt be able to make a big impact, scoring just about ten points a game. While defensively, he will be impactful as well with his size. Bradley will smother opposing 2-guards with quickness and pressure while Lee will do the same, only with his size instead.

Between the two of them, opposing guards will not like playing against the Celtics. In the same way, opposing teams will not like playing against the Celtics in general with the amount of depth and talent they have. 

This would have been true before they even acquired Lee. Now that they have him though it is even more true. Whether he is starting at the beginning of the season or coming off the bench in the middle of it, he will be an impact player on both ends of the floor and will help the Celtics contend for a championship yet again.