in the aftermath

In the end, it came down to 2 baskets.

That's how close the Celtics came to winning the NBA title.

After dragging their old bodies through the regular season.

After overcoming the odds in the playoffs to get to the Finals.

After fighting the LA Lakers to a standstill in said Finals.

After all that - it came down to 2 baskets.

So while the team is still in grief having come so very close....... it's time for Danny Ainge, the GM, to get to work. And he has LOTS of work to do.

The coach is going to do his yearly review on whether he'll return to coach the next season. It's not certain that he will.

The associate head coach is expected to take up an offer to be a head coach at another team. Having been the chief architect of the vaunted Celtics defence for the past 3 years, his departure will certainly be felt.

9 of the 15 players on the roster are out of contract - including Ray Allen, one of the new Big Three. How many of them will be back ?

Rasheed Wallace IS under contract but is contemplating retirement. Having seen him struggle to the finish of Game 7 against the Lakers, I think that he will. But fair play to him - having coasted through the regular season, he was ready to play in the post season. Just like he had been saying. If he does retire, I expect that Danny Ainge will have it in mind to approach 'sheed to join the Celtics for the 2nd half of next season. It's been his MO for the past 3 seasons.

The supposed window for the new Big Three has reached it's conclusion. They won 1 NBA Championship and made the Finals of another. And if not for the knee injury to KG in 2009, would have had a very good chance to have added another NBA Championship. As it stands, the objective of winning an NBA Championship was achieved in their first season together. But they're aging and it's beginning to show.

The new face of the Boston Celtics has been established with Rajon Rondo locked into a new 5-year contract. He has gone from being a second tier point guard to being described as the best all around point guard in the NBA today. That's quite an improvement over the space of one season.

With KG, Pierce, Rondo, Perk and Big Baby still around for the next season, there's still a core good enough to make a decent run at success the next season. But with budget considerations coming into the equation, the question is how will Danny Ainge go about filling the rest of the Celtics roster ?

NB. I guess part of the sadness is the realization that this era of the new Big Three may have just come to an end. It may have been brief but it was glorious. And unlike football, you can't really build perennial title-winning teams in the NBA.

NBB. Another thing noted by Doc Rivers : the starting five still hasn't lost a series. Considering that regular center Perk was injured and couldn't play in game 7, and the series was tied 3-3 at that time, I guess that's his qualifier.