Greg Oden

While at the time (last years lottery), it appeared that the balls were not bouncing the Celtics way, not getting Greg Oden may not have been the worst thing in the world. With the recent news that he will be out 2 to 4 weeks, in addition to him missing all of last year, I can only surmise that the Celtics, instead of being World Champs, would have been crossing their fingers again at the most recent lottery, hoping for a good bounce. The Celtics would not have Garnett, Allen, or Pierce (most likely), and we would have been saying yet again, wait until next year. While the jury is still out on Oden, it appears that he will be an injury hazard for years to come. While the Celtics have an older team, they have plenty of mentors to bring along the new guys they draft, instead of letting the rookies figure it out on their own. We need look no further than the Tampa Bay Rays to see what a difference a few steady veterans can make on some talented, but jittery, rookies.