If we got Howard, which historic C's player would you be to help us win a title?

[screwedupmaniac]

Mark Blount would be fantastic at PF next to Howard. Twin Towers. Booyeah baby!

[screwedupmaniac]

...or how about Gerald Green? It'd be the Celtics' version of Kobe and Shaq, only on steroids. We'd be talking a minimum 6 peat.

[Who]

Someone smart enough needs to post top ten celts per our fun contest from awhile back.
Off the top of my head w/ 5 minutes of coffee I'm leaning towards  Paul Silas or Bill Walton

If leaving out the top top guys like Bird, Russell, Havlicek, Cousy, Cowens and McHale ... Silas would be my first choice.

He would be terrific alongside Dwight Howard. I'd take him ahead of guys like Sam Jones and the other stars from the 60s + Jo Jo White from the 70s, and, since the team would have Dwight at center, I'd take Silas ahead of Robert Parish too.

The defensive play, rebounding, quickness and transition capabilities of Silas + Dwight would be a sight to see. 

[chris_fanfeedr]

Fun question. Definitely Larry Bird.

Dwight is practically an entire team defense by himself. Pairing him with another great defender would hurt the offense and lead to diminishing returns on D. I think Larry would be really intriguing because look at what Dwight has done for a lot of Orlando's 3-point shooters. What would he do for one of the best shooters of all time?

[TitleMaster]

For the question as to the non-top 10 Celts... yes, Paul Silas is my man ... rebounder extraordinaire, best defensive stopper of all time, no offense to the Bowens, M. Coopers, and Rodmans of the world.

Ok, if you're convinced that Howard, without another elite PF defender is good enough, then sure, it's either Larry or Hondo for me. I still believe in defense so my nod would lean towards Havlicek, simply because he was completely solid on the perimeter, defensively, and was a terrific scorer all around. Plus, I think his running would take LeBron, Wade, and Kobe out of breath after 3 quarters, since the NBA doesn't allow for juicing for Q4 

I think I have an intrinsic love for the central 70s team because for the most part, when Silas-Cowens-Havlicek were together,'72-'76, we never had a losing streak of any sort. You can look this up, I believe there wasn't a period of 3 or more losses ever. There were two injuries, Havlicek's elbow in the '73 playoffs and Cowen's ankle in '75, which stopped nearly 4 seasons of straight titles. As a whole, the 70s unit were the defensive masterminds of the age and really showed that crafty defensive, with everyone contributing offensively (now including the likes of Westy, Chaney, & Scott), won championships.

The current crop of C's, I believe, were not that great at defense because despite scoring slumps, we gave up leads, more often than not, by losing focus and tenacity. This seemed to happen too often for my comfort. I mean the Lakers did win the rebounding contest in game 7, and in my scenario with Cowens (or Silas), we win it. And likewise, with Hondo, I don't think RonRon will be able to hang with him for more than one quarter. RonRon doesn't run marathons on his free time.

[jaybahs]

"Nervous" Pervis Ellis! 

[TitleMaster]

I know it's heresy to say it, but I think you might be overrating defense, at least as compared to elite offense. 

My counter theory to that is the many of us, esp in the media, have forgotten how important Maxwell was, to the 80s C's. He was a key defensive stopper for the first two titles, and he really did some serious damage to Worthy's game in '84, prior to the last '85 finals, when Worthy had finally redeemed himself as the perennial Big Game James.

In my scenario, with Howard/Cowens upfront, the number of tomahawk jams will be a lot less, since Howard won't be needing too much help in shoving the aging Kareem, out of his hook shot comfort zone. And as you already know, Cowens had a lot of experience defending Kareem but in his prime. Thus, the Kareem/Worthy one-two punch won't work in my world. It's either sky hook or bust!