SDH Presents the NBA's Worst to First for January and and February: 15. Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics Overall Win/Loss Record (as of February 28th) :  30-27 (third place, Atlantic Division)	Last Month: 16	This Month: 15
Team Statistics and League Rank (as of February 28th) Points Scored: 96.2 (18th) Points Allowed: 96.1 (9th) Team FG%: .459 (9th) Opponent’s FG%: .441 (9th) Team FT%: .781 (6th) Team Three Point FG%: .343 (24th) Rebounds per game: 39.9 (29th) Opponents rebounds per game: 43.8 (24th) Turnovers per game: 14.3 (7th) Opponents turnovers per game: 15.7 (4th)	Individual Statistical Leaders (as of February 28th) Scoring (ppg): Paul Pierce (18.6) Rebounds per game:  Kevin Garnett (7.8) Minutes per game: Paul Pierce (34.0) Assists per game: Paul Pierce (4.5) Field Goal Percentage: Kevin Garnett (.496) Free Throw Percentage: Paul Pierce (.790) Three Point FG Percentage: Jason Terry (.365) Steals per game: Avery Bradley (1.4) Blocked Shots per game: Kevin Garnett (1.0)
Worst Player of the Month: Brandon Bass After starting the season with a solid performance finishing the month averaging close to ten points and five boards per game, Brandon Bass' production simply took a nose dive.  His offensive game was virtually nonexistent for the Celtics as the season dragged with his scoring dropped from 9.5 per game to just six per game and his impact continued to diminish with each passing month.  Bass certainly has not played to the expectations of Celtic fans since Boston signed the burly power forward to that five year 36$ million contract.  Now the Celtics are stuck with another overpaid player that is headed for decline and whose contract is short of untradable.  With three years and 18$ million left, the Celtics are virtually stuck with him and if his poor play is any indication of the future, then it looks as if Bass will be yet another dead weight further dragging this once great team.	First Player of the Month:  Jeff Green If there has been any bright spots and this slow, aging and crumbling Celtics, it has to be the play of Jeff Green.  Many fans in Boston balked at Celtics GM Danny Ainge for signing him to a four year 36$ million contract, especially since he missed the entire season due to a heart complication.  Green's less than stellar play to start of the season certainly did not earn him any more fans as he performed rather underwhelming to say the least.  As the season wore on, however, Green's play started to pick up and instead of looking like the free agent blunder made by Danny Ainge, he began to look like like a sheer steal as Green showed flashes of brilliance and plenty of star potential.  Green's greatest performance thus far has come in February where he has posted his highest offensive output for the season averaging 15.2 points per game coming off the bench while shooting at an impressively efficient .512 from the field.  After all the adversity that Green had undergone last season not being able to play, he can certainly be considered in the running as one of the best feel good stories in the league.
Analysis: To quote an old Jackson Browne song, the Boston Celtics have literally been "running on empty," as they have spent the entire season huffing and puffing trying to keep their heads above water.  They certainly no longer resemble the Celtics team from the 2008 season that took the league by storm winning their first NBA Championship title since 1986.  Instead, Boston does not even look like a shell of their former selves as they have limped and hobbled through the season barely breaking even with them barley squeaking by hovering just right above the .500 mark.  When it did not seem that the Celtics' season could not any worse, it did as Boston would lose arguably the team's best overall player thus far, Rajon Rondo, for the rest of the regular season.  Now the Celtics would have to trudge forward without the player that had virtually carried the team keeping it from falling further towards irrelevance; however, instead of completely folding as everyone anticipated, Boston did the complete opposite by actually drawing strength from the loss of their star player who had kept that sinking ship afloat for so long. In fact, instead of completely crippling an already deteriorating team, Rondo absence actually reignited re-energized this once geriatric rotting roster as Boston would go on to win seven straight after having lost six straight prior when Rondo was still able to play.  Before Rondo was lost to them for the rest of the season, the Celtics had been teetering on the brink of disaster as they rested three games under .500.  Since his unforeseen and spiritually crippling departure, however, the Celtics have been on a scintillating 10-4 run entering the final month and a half of the season with a respectable three games over .500 record.  What once looked like a team that was barely surviving with one foot in the grave suddenly reawakened with a fresh new energy as if the team had finally awakened after a three month long slumber.  The same team that was thought to be "Running on Empty" now had found that it still had a little gas still left in its rusty old gas tank and they are using what's left to make a mad dash for the finish line. One actually has to give plenty of credit to this Celtics team as they have certainly silenced many a naysayer who were ready, willing and able to pull the plug on this team finally putting it out of its misery.  Despite struggling throughout the season and suffering a devastating blow of losing their best player, the Celtics continued to push forward regardless of the odds being stacked heavily against their favor.  Unfortunately, however, despite this short of miraculous run,  realistically, the Celtics are still no way, shape or form going to return to the championship contender form they once had and this late season surge might be the last left before this team finally goes "flat-line."   Regardless of what the future may hold, at least for now Celtics fans can at least hold their head high for at least one more season before everything completely fall apart and they are left with broken wishes and shattered dreams.  The Celtics have been holding onto the ledge thus far, but their grip has started to slip as the team is being dragged down by a 36$ million dead weight contract and once they finally lose lose their grip and head hurdling towards crashing to the bottom. Celtics fans can thank team GM Danny Ainge for the team's rather sad shape as he wasted the vast amounts of salary cap space earned by the off season to resign an aging and over the hill Kevin Garnett for another three years at a whopping 36$ million.  Granted, at 36 years of age, Kevin Garnett can still be considered as one of the elite power forwards in the league; however, at his age, Garnett's best years are far behind him and his presence along with his erroneous contract will only bring the Celtics further down.  That wasted cap space could have been put to far better use as the Celtics could have possibly been players in this upcoming offseason free agency period which feature such notables as Atlanta's Josh Smith, L.A's Dwight Howard, Utah's Al Jefferson and Paul Milsap along with the Clippers' Chris Paul, just to name a few.  In invested so much money and time on an aging Kevin Garnett who is on the verge of heading towards the twilight of his career, the Celtics have essentially handcuffed themselves for the next three or so years.  Luckily for both Ainge and the Celtics, however, the future will not be as bleak as many foresee it to happen. Thanks to sheer luck, Ainge's 36$ million blunder has been offset by the fact that one of his other gambles in free agency has shown a rather huge early return with Jeff Green suddenly playing like a potential All Star.  If Green continues his stellar play thus far, Danny Ainge could have possibly have found the Celtics next great star and a future franchise player for the next three years at a rather reasonable price of just $9 million per season.  In addition to Green's emergence, Ainge also made some low key, low cost mid-season addition which may have brought the Celtics some true diamonds in the rough that can possibly be worth twice or three times worth their weight in gold.  In a very quiet trade deadline, Ainge acquired a young streaky sharpshooting shooting guard in Jordan Crawford for the lowly Washington Wizards, who with the proper guidance, could be a possible game changer for years to come.  Add such late season acquisition such as an extremely talented athletic swingman with issues in Terrence Williams who inexplicably by chance just fell in Ainge's lap along with a young bruising power forward DJ White who had shown plenty of potential last season while playing with the Charlotte Bobcats, Ainge might just have this Celtics team in far better shape than many would have given him credit for and possibly on the fact track to returning into a contender once again.