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Celtics, welcome back.

After being pushed aside by the Red Sox and Patriots and their championship reigns, the Celtics are back on Boston’s radar screen. The selection of Gerald Green, a high schooler out of Gulf Shores Academy (TX) at number 18 was an absolute steal for the Celtics and gives the franchise a potential superstar to build around if they jettison Paul Pierce. And he gives the fans the Celtics have lost by floundering the last few years a reason to get back down to North Station on those miserable February nights.

Green is an absolute athletic freak with a decent outside shot who apparently really values education. Not quite enough to actually attend college but once I sit down with Gerald for an exclusive Barstool interview I’ll bring pictures from my days at Connecticut College and fill him in on all that he missed. Namely, getting fat.

But my weight issues aside, getting Green makes the Celtics relevant again. I want to get in on my season tickets now so that in three years when Green, Al Jefferson, Delonte West and Tony Allen are ripping it up, I’m front and center.

With Green, the Celtics are no doubt the 3rd best team in the Eastern Conference. If the team keeps Pierce for next season (which it looks like they will since there wasn’t a draft night trade) the Celtics are suddenly a very real threat to make it to the conference finals. They still may be a few years away from knocking off a team like Detroit or Miami but I would not want to face the C’s in the playoffs.

Start in the frontcourt. First, Blount is a disaster and not worth 1/100th of what the Celtics are paying him. But at least he’s a 7-foot stiff who can foul Shaq a few times come playoff time. When he was healthy, Raef LaFrentz showed that he could still be a factor on the offensive end, especially if Doc Rivers keeps an up-tempo pace. Kendrick Perkins should be ready to contribute. Antoine Walker could be back and love him or hate him, at least you know what you’re getting. And then there’s Big Al. How can you not love this kid? He should start getting serious minutes next year and though he may not dominate, there will definitely be times when he is unguardable.

Then you look at the backcourt and suddenly there is a lot of talent and flexibility. Pierce is still one of the premier offensive swingmen in the NBA. Sure, he’s a headcase and he may shank Green in the locker room if the rookie steps on his toe but he is still virtually unstoppable with the ball in his hands. After a year of pouting playing in Rivers’ up-tempo offense, you would have to think that even a lunatic like Pierce would have realized by now that Doc isn’t going anywhere so it’s time to just shut up and play.

Gary Payton will probably not be back but if somehow Doc and Danny Ainge convince him to return he should have another solid season. The maturation of West and Marcus Banks should let the C’s rest Payton for longer stretches, saving his old legs for later in the season and the playoffs. And Tony Allen gives them an outstanding defensive stopper who can handle the top backcourt players in the NBA.

Green could potentially start from Day One at the 2, though most likely he will come off the bench. If Green doesn’t start then the C’s are fine with Ricky Davis as a starter. But regardless Green will make an impact right away. This isn’t a Larry Brown-Darko Milicic situation. Green has the athletic ability and talent to develop into a perennial All-Star. And perhaps the best part for him is that he doesn’t have to be the man right away. Pierce, Walker, LaFrentz and Jefferson should be the centerpieces of the C’s offense for a few more years.

Sitting on my couch, watching team after team pass on Green and the other player I coveted, Danny Granger drop, I actually started getting nervous about the possibility of one of them dropping to the Celtics. I haven’t been nervous about anything involving the Celtics since I saw Celtic Pride and had a mild anxiety attack.

But as Green and Granger slid, I started getting excited. Last year when Jefferson dropped to the Celtics, I was happy but there was so much uncertainty surrounding Al. But Green and Granger were both rated as top-10 talents. Most draft “experts” had Green going in the top-7. Not since the C’s got lucky with Pierce had Boston ended up with a player capable of taking over games.

And that is what you need to win in the NBA. The best teams have players- Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Chauncey Billups, Richard Hamilton- that are capable of controlling the game in the final five minutes. Give them the ball, clear out and let them win the game.

The C’s have Pierce but Walker was never really that type of player. Walker just isn’t a good enough athlete to win games, especially when opponents know that the ball is going to him. You watched him get dominated by someone like Kenyon Martin and it was obvious that the Celtics weren’t going to win with Walker as their second option.

Now, well, now the Celtics have that player. Green and Pierce could develop into an unstoppable wing combo, capable of closing out games. And if Pierce does end up getting moved sometime in the future, I’m convinced that Danny Ainge, who is a starting to look like a younger, Mormon version of Theo Epstein, will fall ass-backwards into another potential superstar. That’s just the way things are working out nowadays in Titletown.