Celtics win the Atlantic Division

Congratulations to Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers, and the Boston Celtics, who are Atlantic Division champions for the first time in 13 years. Frankly, they've accomplished this in large measure because of the weakness in the division, but not many people predicted them to win it anyway. And they clinched it themselves, on the court, with their win in Toronto last night.

They've won the division, but they've not yet clinched a home-court advantage in the first round of the play-offs. As things stand right now, the Celtics go in as the 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference play-offs, and Indiana goes in as the 6th seed. The Celtics are 2 games ahead of the Pacers with each team having 2 games remaining. If the Celtics lose both of their games and Indiana wins both of theirs, the Pacers would have the home-court by virtue of a better head-to-head record against the Celtics, even though Boston would technically be the 3rd seed and Indiana the 6th. So the Celtics have a magic number of 1 to clinch the home-court - 1 Celtic win or 1 Indiana loss wraps it up.

When Danny Ainge took over in May of 2003, they were in the process of being swept out of the second round of the Eastern Conference Play-offs by the New Jersey Nets. They finished the 2003 season at 44-38, with an old roster. They're finishing 2005 with a record that will be at least 45-37, possibly as good as 47-35. While they took a step back record-wise in 2004, they have currently got a team that's going to finish with a better record than the team 2 years ago, and they've gotten more talented and significantly younger in the process.

Celtics Roster Change - 2003-2005

2003 Roster2004 Roster
Name	Age	Name	Age
Holdovers
Paul Pierce	25.55	Paul Pierce	27.55
Antoine Walker	26.72	Antoine Walker	28.72
Mark Blount	27.42	Mark Blount	29.42
Replacements
Tony Delk	29.25	Gary Payton	36.77
Walter McCarty	29.24	Ricky Davis	25.6
Eric Williams	30.79	Tony Allen	23.3
Tony Battie	27.22	Marcus Banks	23.45
J.R. Bremer	22.61	Al Jefferson	20.32
Kedrick Brown	22.12	Raef LaFrentz	28.92
Grant Long	37.14	Delonte West	21.77
Mark Bryant	38.02	Kendrick Perkins	20.47
Bimbo Coles	35.02	Justin Reed	23.29
Vin Baker	31.44
Average
	29.43		25.8

That is a roster that is not only better than it was two years ago, it is much younger, and carries with it vastly more potential for improvement. Do they have, in Marcus Banks, Al Jefferson, Tony Allen, Delonte West and Kendrick Perkins, the foundation of an eventual championship team? Will any of these players hoist banner number 17? There's no way to know that now. But it was obvious and knowable that no one who was on that team two years ago was the right answer. There's no doubt about it - Danny Ainge has, in his first two years, done an outstanding job as the GM of the Celtics.