Shedding burden of youth helped Celtics prosper

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Want to know one big reason the Boston Celtics just might be the best team in basketball? Besides the additions of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, of course? They are no longer young. Young teams don't win in the NBA. Not a whole lot, anyway. This is one of the little ironies, especially as the players get younger, more and more of them entering the league after just one or two years in college. Many young players struggle before they find their place in the league, and young teams don't win. Last year's Celtics were a textbook example. It was a team with several promising youngsters, the best being Al Jefferson, who could both score in the low block and rebound, a young player who was a star in fantasy leagues because he could put up numbers. It was a team that had promising young players in Kendrick Perkins, Delonte West and Ryan Gomes, a talented rookie in Rajon Rondo and an unproven one in Leon Powe. And it had no idea how to win. And that was with Paul Pierce, who might just be the best offensive player in Celtics history. Young teams don't win for a variety of reasons, certainly, but maybe the biggest is that the NBA is such a different game than the college game, and that's not just merely the things that happen on the court. The length of the schedule. The endless travel. They are things few young players are only remotely ready for. Maybe it's this simple: A college team plays roughly 30 games a season now, which can be a grind in its own right. We are forever hearing college coaches talk about how difficult it is to play as many as three games in a week, right? Well, in the NBA, 30 games is not even half of the schedule. And that's not getting into the fact of the NBA lifestyle, the big money and fast times that have felled many a young player, a world they weren't prepared for, and can come at them as quickly as a Steve Nash fast break. The other thing is the adjustment to the far more physical NBA game. More important, there are no nights off compared to college where mismatches are common, especially early in the season. Plus, the NBA players are all good. Not like in college, where only a select few of them are at the same talent level. Is it any wonder why so many young players seem to flounder for a while, even ones with great ability? This has only been highlighted by the fact that so many players are drafted now that haven't finished college, drafted on potential and what's become known as upside. Take Memphis freshman Derrick Rose, for example, one of the glittering stars of the recent NCAA Tournament. Sure, he has great ability. Sure, if he decides to leave school and enter the NBA Draft he will undoubtedly be one of the first 10 players chosen. But is he ready to win in the NBA? Not if the championship game was any indication, when his missed free throws jump shots were part of the reason Memphis lost. This is not meant to knock Rose, who had a wonderful freshman year. It is to say that he's still just a kid, nowhere near the finished product he'd be if he were to spend three more years in college. And the point is the NBA is full of guys like him, into the league too soon, using the NBA as on-the-job training. It's the reason the last few years Celtics coach Doc Rivers was constantly bemoaning the lack of experience on his team. He knew. He knew that young players are a tease. He knew that most young players have no idea what it takes to win in the NBA, especially defensively. Most of all, he knew that young players will break your heart. Which brings us back to these Celtics. Want to know why they have gotten a great year out of Rondo and Perkins? Want to know why they have gotten valuable contributions from Powe and "Big Baby" Davis? Because there is very little pressure on them. That's what having three veteran All-Stars does. It allows the young players to develop at their own pace. No one expects them to have to make big shots. No one expects them to have to carry a team. They are able to be complementary players, to exist off to the side of the spotlight, not in the middle of it. They are able to learn what it takes to win in the NBA without the burden of having to make it happen. They are able to learn what it takes to win in the NBA by watching great veteran players showing them how. Throw in additional veterans off the bench, such as Eddie House and James Posey, and this team became totally transformed from a year ago, has gone from a young team to a veteran one. One that not only knows how to win, but expects to win. And that's been the key. It has transformed this team. And it promises to give us a basketball spring in ways we haven't had around here for a long time.(Contact Bill Reynolds at breynold@projo.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)