Kevin Garnett Doesn't Have to Be Healthy Right Now

(CBTC)


By: Greg Payne

I have three Kevin Garnett posters hanging in my dorm room right now (I have 12 Celtic posters in all). I was looking up at the one that hangs above my desk and, as is customary these days, I thought about the state of his health.

Perhaps I was naive when he went in for surgery this past summer. I suppose I was under the impression (mostly because I wanted him back so badly) that he would have his surgery and, just like that, be back again. I didn't properly anticipate or calculate the rehabilitation time he would have to undergo in order to reach full strength again.

Now, with various reports indicating that Garnett is back working out, partaking in basketball-related drills such as running and shooting, there appears to be hope on the horizon. It appears as if KG could be cleared for full-court scrimmaging by the start of training camp (less than a week away!!!).

However, as much as I want to see Garnett back in action (it's what I'm looking forward to most this season), I specifically want to see him back in action in the postseason. We all want him to be healthy, but realistically, he doesn't have to be healthy right now. Danny Ainge brought in/retained enough talent this offseason to prepare for a worst case scenario (another Garnett injury). We now have considerable depth at the 4 and 5 spots, with Rasheed Wallace, Glen Davis, Shelden Williams and Brian Scalabrine all capable of filling in. With that said, if Garnett needs to take another week or two or even three, would anyone argue?

In years past, the regular season might have been all we had to look forward to. In years past, the playoffs were a destination we weren't always guaranteed to reach. But now, while we still enjoy the regular season, we've been conditioned to believe that the playoffs are all that matter. Slowly but surely, as the basketball culture around here changed, the only months that held value were April, May and June.

So, with that in mind, one of our primary goals this season should be to sustain Kevin Garnett's health (as well as the health of everyone else) throughout the regular season so that there is no doubt he's 100 percent when the playoffs arrive. He could miss the first month, or the first two months - it doesn't really matter at this point. Even without Garnett bolstering the defense, we're still looking at one of the five best teams in the entire league and regardless of Garnett's status throughout the regular season, we'll waltz into the playoffs.

Wallace is arguably more versatile than Garnett, is probably the one player in the league who can compete with KG's fire and, while most other players are a step back on defense, Wallace is one of the best replacements you can find. And, if for whatever reason you have no faith in Wallace, Davis is back on board and we all know what he did during the playoffs last year.

Let me throw a hypothetical situation at you. Let's say that come March, the Celtics are fourth in the East and Garnett has not played a single game (I said hypothetical). The moment he comes back fully healthy, the Celtics immediately take that "leap" and can once again be pronounced a perennial favorite. It's that simple.

Last season was so heart rendering because when Garnett was healthy in the regular season, we saw how great that team actually was. Our hopes were high and our optimism was through the roof. But then tragedy struck in Utah and we realized in our very first playoff game against the Bulls, that the regular season didn't even matter. So we lost arguably our best player (who some would say shouldn't have even been playing) during a stretch of the season that was not vital to our championship hopes in even the most finite of ways.

Do I want to see Garnett screaming in training camp next week? Of course. Do I want to see him obliterate opponent's shot attempts in preseason? Obviously. Do I want to see him connect with Rondo on one of those alley-oops that'll make me do a double-take? You bet.

But will I fret if I don't see any of those things? No. And neither should you. Because our goal is a championship and not the best regular season record in the league or home court for the postseason or anything else that is associated with the first 82 games. Our goal is the playoffs. And that's the only time we'll need a healthy Kevin Garnett.