This season is gearing up to be a long one for Boston fans. Injuries have decimated this club to an extreme that borders on the ridiculous. The team is playing without All Star Paul Pierce, forward Wally Sczcerbiak, who was supposed to be Pierce’s running mate, guard Tony Allen who had blossomed this season into a player to watch on a nightly basis and Delonte West, whose frenetic style of play seems to just encourage the type of nagging injuries that have sidelined him as of late.

Add Kendrick Perkins’ ongoing struggle with plantar fasciitis, Al Jefferson’s emergency appendectomy earlier this season, Michael Olowokandi’s strained side muscle, and Theo Ratliff’s back, (Which will keep him out all season.) you start to get an idea of how hard it has been for Doc Rivers to get his team into any sort of rhythm this season. Did I forget anyone? Oh yeah, Brian Scalabrine has a bad knee as well. A recent Boston Globe article by Peter May outlined the rash of injuries around the league that is affecting superstars, but the Celtics are just losing everyone.

Is there anything positive that we can take from this season? Do we have reasons to keep watching?

Of course we do. While some have already set their sights ahead to next season, or perhaps even to the draft lottery, (Greg Oden, anyone?) there is still plenty of important work to do THIS season.

It’s crazy, but the Atlantic division is still open. I’ll admit to not really thinking that making the playoffs is a good goal for this team. What will be accomplished by that? Getting bounced in the first round and another middle of the road draft pick. Then we’re right back to where we are now.

What the Celtics need to do this season is play the young players who are healthy and develop them as much as they can. They also need to make some decisions on which of these players are keepers for the future, and which ones they might want to use in a trade for better fitting pieces going forward.

Who do we want to see on the floor the most over the next few months?

Gerald Green

We need him really get the minutes to develop his game and get him ready for the role that he seems headed for…the scoring sidekick to Paul Pierce and possible future All Star in his own right. He’s got to be out on the floor for 35 minutes a night, and learn how to be the center of attention. He’s got to take his lumps on defense and learn that end of the floor. He could make Szczerbiak expendable really quick, and might be the long term replacement for Paul Pierce a long ways down the road. He’s got a long way to go before then, but he’s got the talent to reach that level. He needs the experience now to start to develop and hone that talent.

Rajon Rondo

Point guard has been a revolving door in the Ainge era. It needs to stop. He and Doc need to find a point guard and stick him in charge of the team. Sebastian Telfair really hasn’t done it for me, though I think Doc is so impatient with point guards (because he was one) he sometimes hampers their development. Rondo needs to play and play 25-30 minutes each night to see what he can do and what he can learn to adapt to. His shot is never going to be a strength, but he makes passes I haven’t seen around here since at least the John Bagley glory days. He can score. Not shoot, score. His game is electric and something always seems to be happening on the court when he’s out there. Give him the minutes, Doc. Let him learn to run the team at an NBA level.

Leon Powe

Ironically, Powe has been pretty healthy in this season of Celtics injuries. I say ironically because Powe has a snakebitten past of injuries himself, including two ACL tears. Injuries are why he was available in the second round. When Powe is on the floor, the Celtics have a presence in the paint. He throws his body around. He grabs rebounds and comes down with his elbows out. He can take on much bigger players and score. Let’s see as much of him as we can. I don’t know if there is room going forward for both he and Ryan Gomes, and they’re both undersized power forwards, so we need to see who is going to be the better fit for the future.

Allan Ray

Another undersized guy, Ray has shown he can shoot and score. His 22 points against the Hawks had some worried that the Celtics might actually pull that game out. Rivers played a tiny lineup on Friday night with Ray, Rondo and Telfair on the floor with Powe and Olowokandi. They played some of their best ball of the night with that lineup as Ray came off picks and hit several jumpers as well as drives to the hoop. It’s worth seeing what his ceiling is.

Al Jefferson

We’ve mentioned this before, but since moving to center, Jefferson has been a new man. The impressive rebounding numbers are coming on a nightly basis now, and his scoring has been fairly consistent as well. Just don’t get hurt, Al. Like Green, we need to take advantage of the time to really develop Jefferson for his role going forward. He too could be a huge piece of the puzzle for a rebuilt Celtics team.

Giving the kids all the minutes isn’t likely to result in a whole lot of wins. Sometimes you’ve got to just start looking to the future. Like him or not, Ainge has collected quite a bit of young talent on this roster. It’s been shown that it’s pretty hard to win with such a young roster, but one of the goals of acquiring the young talent was to have chips to trade and bargain with. It’s time to find out who the keepers are, and who might be a better fit for someone else. Play the kids, Doc!

It’s hard to believe, but we’re almost a third of the way through the season already. The Celtics, after some early ups and downs, have been decidedly down on this West coast road trip as they play without Captain Paul Pierce. We thought we’d take a look at the roster and see who has been a pleasant surprise and who has been a disappointment thus far.

Surprises:

Al Jefferson - The third year big man came back from his appendectomy with a vengeance and really hasn’t let up since. After the Celtics lost all three of their centers to injury, big Al moved into the position and in 13 games as a starter, he is averaging 16.3 points per game and 11 rebounds. Impressive. With Pierce out, he is also getting double-teamed almost every time he touches the ball and has been getting better and handling it.

This is the Al Jefferson we’ve been waiting for.

Tony Allen - Since moving back to the starting lineup, Allen has flourished as the high-energy guy. He also has started 13 games and has averaged 14.6 points in those contests. He has been the team’s best defender, taking on the opposition’s top scorer, and has gone back to his slashing, athletic style that made him so effective as a rookie. Allen has improved his jump shot, and played smarter this season.

Gerald Green - We weren’t sure how much Green was going to play this season, but even before the recent rash of injuries, Doc Rivers had told us that Green had earned the right to play meaningful minutes. Since Paul Pierce went down, Green has moved into the starting lineup, and in his first four games, averages 15.4 points a game. He also among the league leaders in three point shooting percentage, having connected on 33 of 69 attempts for 47.8%. Again, that is an impressive stat for a second year guy out of high school, who is known more for his athletic gifts rather than his shooting abilities.

Leon Powe - We haven’t seen as much of this rookie as we would like, but in the time that he is on the floor, he is a presence. He rebounds with authority, asserts himself in the paint against much bigger players, and displays a nice variety of inside moves. He adds an element of toughness that this team needs more of.

Disappointments

Delonte West - He has been slightly better lately, but has been wildly inconsistent all season long. His normally deadly accurate jumper has deserted him at time, and though he has had games of 27 and 28 points, he has also had a few nights of 2 and 4 points. He continues to piling up nagging injuries which decrease his effectiveness on the court. He needs to not hesitate when going into his shot when he is open. Too often he seems to be looking to pass it off rather than take that shot himself.

Wally Sczcerbiak - Can this guy stay on the court? This season has been one of frustration for a guy who was supposed to be the steady compliment to Paul Pierce. He seems to be rolling ankles every other night and in practice, and his normally accurate shooting has been shaky as well. When he is able to play, even though hampered, Rivers still seems to put him on the court for 40 minutes, taking away time that Gerald Green could be seeing.

Doc Rivers - We’re in year three of the Rivers era, and I still haven’t figured this guy out. Good motivator, poor in-game coach? Good game manager, poor strategist? Will be play the young guys, or keep them on a short leash? A couple of things about Rivers that I wish were different…he was a former point guard, and seems to be hardest on his own point guards, he’s always on them, harping, yelling, telling them what to do. The guards he has are young and do need the direction, but they’ve also played with one eye on Doc at all times. That can’t happen. I’d also like to see Doc get better at being more consistent with the young players. A guy like Gerald Green needs the time in order to get better, and Doc seems to tinker with his minutes on a nightly basis.

Sebastian Telfair - Some of his struggles can be attributed to the above points about Rivers, but Telfair hasn’t yet broken out like some hoped that he would. His shooting has actually been better than expected, but he hasn’t run and controlled the team the way that you’d like to see a good point guard do.