Boston Celtics Keep Waiting to Die

The deadline passed, and the Boston Celtics did nothing.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Boston pushed for trades involving Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, but to no ultimate avail.

This was after a period of supposed frenzied Rondo shopping that ultimately ended in Danny Ainge's, "Rondo's not being traded" proclamation—the kind of bellowed statement GMs often make to paint over the memory of past explored routes.  

So for now, the Celtics are standing in place above quicksand.

As presently constructed, they will slowly self-destruct. 

Next season, Garnett and Allen will be off the books, freeing up over thirty one million dollars in space. So there is room, but to what end? Boston does not have a history rich in the wooing of free agent superstars. 

Take away Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen from this core, and you likely have an awful team. For all the fixation on KG's advanced age, he remains Boston's—if not the league's—best defensive player. Even at 35, Garnett currently paces the club in plus-minus among starters, just like he did last year.

And the elder Ray Allen keeps spreading the floor like wet pizza dough as other teams salivate over the short term help he might provide. 

But if Boston manages to keep these two stalwarts, it merely slows death's inexorable march.

The Celtics are not good enough to win a title, and the twenty-six year old Rajon Rondo is more "adequate" than "building block." It is far fetched to believe that Rondo's improvement can compensate for what time takes from the others.

And poor-shooting, smallish point guards rarely age well themselves. 

So the Celtics are not at a crossroads, they're merely fading into oblivion. When they return to greatness—by ping pong ball or by free agent signing—Boston will be reincarnated as something wholly different from the team we've come to know.