Shooting Guard: If I really wanted to shake things up with this, I’d run Pierce here, but I’m not idiot… at least I don’t think so. The guy for this spot is Ray Allen and while his defense has left me wanting and he hasn’t put the ball on the floor as much I would like, Ray has been the dead eye shooter as promised when he was traded to Boston in 2007. Obviously his days of taking over game after game have ended, as has his ability or desire to dominate the ball possession after possession. But Ray’s penchant for hitting game winning baskets has followed him back east, and Doc Rivers has found more ways to put the ball where Jesus Shuttlesworth can do the most damage. Coming off ankle surgeries in 2007, Allen started his Celtis career a bit slowly, but a torrid shooting 2009 season combined with Doc’s greater understanding of Ray’s game put the former UConn Huskie on the team.

Small Forward: Paul Pierce is on the team. I’m sure anyone reading this would have to consider this least shocking thing they’ve read about the Celtics since the first stories came out about Sheed’s issues with getting technical fouls. The first summer of the decade ended with the young Celtics star being stabbed, and nearly killed, in a Boston nightclub. Miraculously, Pierce healed quickly as has become his trait as a Celtic, and returned to the court without missing any games. That story alone has to put even a tangential fan of humanity into his corner, but time and time again Paul Pierce gutted through tough times and good to put his team and his adopted city of Boston first. Pierce transitioned through growing pains as a young star scorer to presumptive leader through a rebuilding process to captain of the best basketball team on Earth. It wasn’t always easy for the Inglewood, California product who grew up a Celtics hater, but by decade’s end few players who wore Celtics green and white better represent what it means to wear the jersey than Paul Pierce.

Power Forward: Those with an irrational love of things Antoine Walker… prepare for disappointment. If one of the greatest record turnarounds in NBA history isn’t directly attributable to the arrival of this guy, then it’s time to shut down and retool. Arguably one of the greatest NBA players of this past decade and perhaps one of the greatest “4’s” of all time, Kevin Garnett changed the culture in Boston. His commitment to the defensive end of the court was truly contagious and transformed the porous defense played by the 2007 Celtics into one of the greatest defensive teams in NBA history just 12 short months later. Certainly Tom Thibodeau and Doc Rivers deserve credit for putting forth successful gameplans on that end of the court, but it was the often profanity laced instructions coming from Garnett that put all 12 men on the same page. Without that commitment to defense, Banner 17 is still a goal… not a reality.

Center: Tony Battie? Umm… no. Vitaly? You’re kidding. Pervis Ellison? Unless this is mid-80’s Louisville basketball, then no. Mark Blount? I hate you.

Nope, the center of the decade is Kendrick Perkins. If you had told me this two years ago, even in the midst of the championship season, I would have laughed at you and then suggested that it would be sooner that Bill Simmons would think so much of his abilities to call his latest tome The Book on Basketball. Whoops. Anyway, Kendrick Perkins isn’t getting the nod here for his prowess scoring the basketball, rather it his transformation into a devastating defender causes much more celebrated centers to fear facing him. Dwight Howard’s three FG’s in the last 80 minutes of facing Perkins and the Celtics are evidence of that. Even without Garnett next to him through the second half of last season, Perkins proved more than capable enough to quarterback the undermanned Celtics defense. Yet, I had always marked Perk down for not being a capable threat on the offensive end of the court, and without strides made in that area, we may have gone with Tony Battie… shudder. Somehow Perk learned to get a bit of touch to his game, eschewing the old “Pedro fastball to the rim” approach to shooting for a much more refined effort. Clifford Ray deserves a great deal of credit for Perkins’ success as the lump of clay he took under his wing when Ray first arrived hardly resembled what Perkins has become, one of the top centers in the NBA.

Coach: Yes, I called for his firing, and yes, I thought guys like Rick Adelman would be a step up from Doc Rivers. Mea culpa. But, given the difference the players he was working with prior to the arrival of Garnett and Allen, it would be difficult to judge anyone with that flotsam and jetsam. Yet it was under Doc’s tutelage that Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Delonte West, Kendrick Perkins, and Rajon Rondo developed as legit NBA players and that simply doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Doc added standout assistant coaches in Clifford Ray and Tom Thibodeau to bolster his staff, but less celebrated coaches like Kevin Eastman and Armond Hill have played key roles in making the late 2000’s teams so successful. Now while Doc Rivers has been quite successful, a word or two should be devoted to the work put in by Jim O’Brien in the early part of this decade. O’Brien took a floundering team and franchise under Rick Pitino and pushed his team to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2002. Pierce’s coming out party as an NBA star was a big help, but O’Brien’s coaching is what made that team so difficult to face, particularly on the defensive end. The “bombs away” approach on offense left a lot to be desired, but O’Brien did what a good coach does… make the most of what you have.