The Celtics' Baby Steps:
Doc Rivers has to hate this teenybop movement, but the Celtics couldn't pass on spectacular prep star Gerald Green in the first round of June's draft. He was freakish in the summer league. Al Jefferson, a brute force, has turned out to be a wise choice as Danny Ainge's No. 1 pick of a year ago, and it will be frightening to watch this core develop. And Brian Scalabrine is an underrated signing -- even at $15 million for five years -- what with his versatility and an unparalleled work ethic that will bode well with so many impressionable young minds on the roster.

This isn't the old Eastern Conference in which Paul Pierce's gunning can get the Celts into the postseason, but you have to love Ainge's plan to get young and talented through the draft, get under the cap, and then ultimately go for it in free agency.