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Celtics Hope To Turn Depth Into Positive With Camp Competition

BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Celtics have as many question marks as they do players on their roster as they prepare for training camp to get underway later this week.

Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens certainly have their work cut out for them as they prepare for the 2015-16 NBA season. With 16 players under contract, someone will have to go. Once the roster is trimmed down, then it will be up to Stevens to figure out where, when and with whom everyone plays with. He's got a roster full of repetition, especially at the two guard and power forward spots, which is just another wrinkle he'll have to iron out before the season gets underway, and throughout the 82-game slate.

How do veteran additions Amir Johnson (signed in the offseason) and David Lee (acquired via trade from the Warriors) fit in? Will Isaiah Thomas continue to come off the bench, despite his desire to start? What can we expect from the trio of rookies the team added in the draft? And where the heck does Evan Turner fit into this whole equation?

All of these might lead to a bad popsicle headache, but these are "problems" the Celtics are welcoming as they get ready for the new season. They don't see their abundance of depth as an issue at all, but rather a potential strength for a team without a true super star on the roster.

"We have to use our depth and play like we did last year at the end of the season," Ainge told reporters Tuesday at the Celtics' annual golf tournament in Plymouth. "If we can carry that momentum over and move the ball; it's really important that we share and move the ball and not have anybody try to be a star. Collectively as a team, we have to be better than any individual."

"I feel our depth is a key. Let's turn this into a positive rather than an issue," said Stevens, preparing for his third season on the Boston bench. "We're going to have a lot of ability to maintain our level [of play] when we go to our bench. It will be challenging, but it's a great thing that we have a lot of depth."

When camp begins on Saturday, Stevens will go in with an open mind. He hasn't come up with an ideal starting five, and will let play on the floor dictate his rotation. It's a process that will likely take some time.

"It's not who plays best, but who fits best and makes other people better," he explained. "If you can be a guy who, when you play with Isaiah, spread the floor and lift his game, that's an impactful thing. If you can be a guy, when you play with some of our post guys, you have to be guarded on the perimeter or is a great cutter, that's a great impactful thing.

"We'll figure it all out. This is what I think about every minute of every single day, so I'm as anxious as anybody to see how it separates itself," said Stevens.

Stevens has experience navigating a roster in flux and finding the best fit for each of his players. Last year, the C's made 11 trades between July and February's trade deadline, giving Stevens a lot of new names to learn (sometimes for only a few days). Once he had a set roster, the Celtics finished the season 20-11 to finish 40-42, claiming the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.

With that playoff berth, resulting in a first-round sweep to the Cleveland Cavaliers, comes expectations for the new season among the Celtics faithful. For now, the team isn't placing expectations of their own for 2015-16 squad, just relaying the message that carried them to the summer basketball last season.

With their unorthodox roster and potentially ever-changing rotation, the one thing that will have to remain consistent every night is the team's effort and energy.

"We're going to have a tough game every night, because we're that type of team," said Ainge. "We're a team if we don't come ready to play and don't play well, we can get beat by anybody. At the same time, if we do play well we can beat anybody. We had a lot of close games last year, and a lot of games we won we were very fortunate to win and a lot of games we lost we made some critical mistakes down the stretch. Our effort has to be there every night and we have to be consistent."

"We have such a long way to go to be where we want to be," said Stevens. "We have to play better than last year, overall, to make the playoffs again. The East is better and teams that  didn't make it really improved. We were as close to the 12th [seed] as we were to the fourth. Time will tell if we make the right strides, but if we take shortcuts or if we're not connected we won't."

Who knows what the 2015-16 Boston Celtics will offer, and who knows what the team will look like a week from now, a month from now or even come the trade deadline. The brass' current love affair with their depth could simply be boosting their players, in hopes someone might come calling with some trade offers. Ainge said Tuesday that nothing is currently in the works, but he's certainly open if another team wants to give him a ring.

But the early days of the new season are coming, and the Celtics are ready to start a grand competition at camp. That should provide the 16 players on the roster all the motivation they need as the new season gets underway.

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