Hindsight revelations.

It has been a few days since the Boston Celtics defeated the LA Lakers in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. While I am always happy to see the culmination of a season and everything it represents, the end of basketball is always hard for me. This means that there are no sports currently in season that I enjoy watching. In fact, nothing exciting happens until late August or September.

But anyway, that is not what I am here to talk about. As the title of this post may suggest, I have something that I can easily look backward into the past and examine. It takes no skill to do what I am about to do, so read at your own risk.

Take the Dallas Mavericks team, pre-Jason Kidd trade, and compare them to the World Champion Boston Celtics. The position-by-position breakdown is stunningly similar.

I'll start with the coaches. Not that this matters, but both coaches had not won a Championship (before this year.) When the Mavs lost in the Finals to the Miami Heat a theory was thrown around that it was possible that Avery Johnson was simply out-coached by the veteran coach, Pat Riley. This time around, many people were saying that Coach Rivers would be outcoached by the man with all the Championship rings, Phil Jackson. Not only that, but both have nicknames that suggest the respected rank they hold over their players, Avery "The General" Johnson and Glenn "Doc" Rivers.

Point Guard- Rajon Rondo and Devin Harris are pretty similar players. Both have world class speed on the court, play excellent defense and penetrate the lane in order to get shots for the players on their teams with a better stroke. I'll let either of them drive the lane and take lay-ups all day, but I'd prefer they rack up assists.

Shooting Guard- Ray Allen and Jason Terry have two of the prettiest shots in the game. Granted, Ray Allen will probably be a Hall of Famer and Jason Terry won't, but you don't want to leave either of these players open. Both can handle the ball if they have to play in the One spot, both can create space for themselves, and both are adequate on the defensive end of the floor.

Small Forward/Guard- Paul Pierce and Josh Howard. This is the one place in the comparison where I give it up to Boston. This is far and away the most uneven position when it comes to comparison. Paul Pierce was a mad-man in the playoffs, and the regular season. I feel like Josh Howard has it in him to be a good player like Pierce, but he doesn't have the drive right now. Pierce was constantly taking control of the game, driving hard to the basket, getting fouled and playing excellent defense on Kobe. Howard seemed to digress over the years to a jump-shooter, a more athletic Keith Van Horn. He has shown flashes of excellence when he is driving to the boards, but it seems like that inner-fire has died down. He needs to be more of a slasher and less of a post-up player.

Power Forward- Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki are arguably the best big men in the game, barring the center position. Both players have excellent range, good ball smarts, solid defense, and both manage to get to the foul line when it seems to matter most. Garnett is a more athletic and has now quieted his critics that dogged on him because he had never won on this level. Dirk still has that against him, critics claim that he gets soft when it matters most. (Maybe he did, but he was the only superstar on the team when his team was in the finals, Garnett had the comfort of being part of the Big Three.)

Center- Kendrick Perkins/P.J. Brown and Erick Dampier/ DeSagana Diop. This is called the Five Spot, and thats exactly what it is to both offenses here, the fifth option. This position is not here to score points, it is there to be big in the lane. All these players are big and have fouls to give up, they are also good at setting up screens for the high-scoring forwards on both teams.

Bench- I'm not really sure who gets the nod here. The top player off the bench, Jerry Stackhouse for Dallas and James Posey for Boston, is good on both teams and can come in and add powerful offense. After that I suppose Boston gets the nod with Eddie House, Sam Cassell and even Leon Powe, where Dallas would come with Marquis Daniels, Keith Van Horn and then players like Adrian Griffin and Josh Powell.

Anyway, like I said, I don't know where I am going with this post, except I guess to point out that the loss to Miami was a huge collapse when we had the perfect roster to clinch. Now, unfortunately, we don't.

Peace, Love and Draft Picks.

-Sam

(One more thing worth pointing out-- Celtics Assistant Coach Clifford Ray went to the University of Oklahoma.)