<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">There would appear to be another contender for the NBA's Atlantic Division crown and the coach of the defending champions remains nonplussed. Bring 'em on, Sam Mitchell says of the resurgent Boston Celtics. Adding Kevin Garnett to Paul Pierce and Ray Allen has changed the Celtics from afterthoughts in the division to a team to be reckoned with and while the Raptors head coach is impressed with that threesome, he knows first-hand the NBA season is a long grind that takes more than a trio to dominate. "They've got some players but at the end of the day, (dealing with) injuries and depth are important," Mitchell said in a telephone interview from Georgia last night. "I like our depth and we know we can deal with injuries." But one thing is for certain about the Atlantic: it's doubtful it will be the laughingstock of the league any time soon. When all five teams stumbled out of the gate last year, the group was ridiculed as the Titanic Division and at the end of the season, Toronto had the only winning record among the Raptors, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76es and the Celtics. With the addition of Garnett in Boston, Zach Randolph in New York and New Jersey's Big Three of Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richardson Jefferson healthy at the same time, the division now ranks among the top in the league. What the division may come down to ? aside from depth and being able to deal with injuries ? is something of a three-on-three tournament. The Raptors have Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani and T.J. Ford as their marquee players, the Celtics now have Allen, Garnett and Pierce, the Knicks have Stephon Marbury, Eddy Curry and Randolph and the Nets have their own big trio. "Boston's going to be good but so are a lot of teams," said Mitchell. "It just makes the whole (conference) better; I never looked at the East as the junior varsity conference anyway. "And I like our team, we went through a lot last year and did all right."</div> <div align="center">Source: Toronto Star</div>
There is no depth on the Celtics. Our bench will destroy theirs'. If they don't want that to happen, they will have to play Garnett, Peirce and Allen almost 48 minutes each, and that won't happen.
We'll see what happens this year. As much as i really enjoyed our success last year I really have to note that we just beat up on some injury ravenged teams. How funny was it when we'd play the Bucks and they'd be missing their best 3 players? Stuff like that was happening all the time. On the other hand we showed some real growth and talent with our team last year. We can only get better going forward. Boston's talented but with Allen, Pierce, and Garnett taking up so much of their cap, if the plans don't work out they'll be in cap hell with the Knicks for a while. Which would be quite fun to see.
I think we can only get better, but I don' think this KG, Pierce and Allen thing will effect us to much. See, they have to restart all that chemistry and with almost no bench, what happens? The Raptors have a very deep bench, one of the deepest on the league, we have great chemistry and we have that hunger with a great starting line-up. I say the Raptors end the season with a better record the the Celtics.
