Greener pastures

How will this season go for first-year coach
Brad Stevens?

The grass is always greener on the other side. That's how the old saying goes, and in this case, it couldn't be any more fitting. The 2013-2014 season for the Boston Celtics should not concern the here and now, but what lies ahead -- the greener grass.

These current Celtics remain an enigma. 

No one knows what exactly to expect out of first-year head coach Brad Stevens.

No one knows when Rajon Rondo will return and how he will perform once he does. 

No one knows what Danny Ainge and crew are thinking about the future of this team. I'm sure Ainge himself doesn't even know.

No one knows if this collection of players will remain intact after 3:00 on February 20. 

The list just goes on and on. There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding this franchise, that we can all agree on. Just ask newcomer Gerald Wallace.

“I don’t know man. I honestly don’t know,” Wallace responded when asked about his expectations for this season. “I’m looking for a surprise and hopefully it’s a good surprise."

Maybe this group will slightly resemble the 2013 Red Sox, a team that most wrote off before the season even started, and now they are 27 outs away from a eighth championship title. I'm not saying the Celtics will compete for a title. There's no chance in hell this team even sniffs anything past a first round visit if they're lucky. But maybe they'll surprise us on a smaller scale.

Perhaps we'll see Jeff Green emerge into his own. Maybe Kelly Olynyk can be a central building block going forward. Maybe the new guys from Brooklyn (Wallace, Marshon Brooks, Kris Humphries and Keith Bogans) won't be so bad after all. Maybe Stevens will adjust quickly and make Ainge look like a genius. 

If everything falls into place, maybe this team actually finds its way into the eighth and final playoff spot in a depleted Eastern Conference. Washington is an improved bunch, but is Marcin Gortat really the missing piece? Can the Pistons put ego aside and play together? 

This team is not going to tank. It's not in their DNA. If you as much utter the words "rebuild" and "tank" and you're bound to get death stares and denials from the guys who have been here like Rondo, Jared Sullinger and Avery Bradley. As corny and cliche as it sounds, Celtic pride has to come into play during this "phase" -- don't call it a rebuild, or else! -- of the franchise's history.

You can't expect this team to just wave the white flag before the season even starts. Ainge can't tell a 37-year-old head coach in his first season as an NBA head coach to purposely lose games. Thankfully, it seems that Ainge knows that.

"That's harder than people recognize," said Ainge of tanking. "It's a really easy thing to conceptualize, and an easy thing to talk about and philosophize about. But it's a hard thing to live through -- for fans, for coaches, for owners, for sponsors, for our TV partners."

How many games will they win? No one knows. I can guarantee they won't be over .500, but how far below is up for debate. This season could go in a number of different directions, but one thing is for certain is that the direction will not lead to NBA glory. It could be purgatory. It could be the lottery.

A few words of advice: soak it all in, C's fans. Enjoy the ride. Because the grass is always greener on the other side.


* The Celtics suspended Jared Sullinger for tomorrow's season opener in Toronto after his domestic violence incident in September.

* All 14 bodies were present at practice on Monday. Everyone is healthy and should be ready to go.