The Boston Celtics point guard problem

Oct 30, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley (0) goes up to make a basket as Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry (7) and center Jonas Valanciunas (17) defend at the Air Canada Centre. Toronto defeated Boston 93-87. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics have always had an issue at the point guard position–even with Rajon Rondo. Rondo has been the driving force behind their offense over the last few seasons. And, after watching last night’s opening night game, the Celtics offense looked atrocious without him.

There were very few bright spots in the game. Really, aside from Jeff Green, the Celtics didn’t see much offensive production out of anyone last night. They failed to score at least 20 points against the Raptors in the second quarter and the fourth quarter–the two most crucial quarters in a game if you ask me.

A lot of that is because of their lack of production from the point guard position. Even though Rivers is gone, the point guard still serves as a fulcrum for the Celtics’ offense. Avery Bradley didn’t do a very good job of running the show for the Celtics last night.

Phil Pressey didn’t play a bunch, but when he did he looked pretty bad. I thought that Pressey would at least give the Celtics a natural option at point guard, but Stevens seems to think otherwise. His minute allocation for Pressey wasn’t the best throughout the preseason and it wasn’t very good yesterday either.

The proof is in the production, and the Celtics don’t have too many options at point guard. So the question becomes, what can the Celtics do in this situation?

Stand Pat

Don’t do anything. The Celtics may just be fine with where they are. They know that this is a rebuilding year with a very strong draft coming up in the summer. Forcing a move for a point guard may not be in their best interest as of now.

They’ll get Rajon Rondo back whenever he gets back. Phil Pressey is still on the bench and Avery Bradley may show some skill at the position at some point. But the Celtics really just would like to see what the roster that is currently constituted has going for them.

Besides, it’ll be hard to find a good point guard at this point. The free agent pool is as dry as the Sahara and trading for a point guard means that they’ll have to give something valuable up to get little back. They may bring in a contract that they don’t want just to get another win or two. At the end of the day, it probably isn’t worth it.

That brings us to their other option.

Make a deal via Trade

The Celtics have plenty of rookie deals and tradeable pieces. The Celtics would definitely be able to make a move for a guard who is buried deep within their rotation. Guys like Aaron Brooks, Marquis Teague, Jameer Nelson and others will be available at some point in the future.

Some of these teams may not be encouraged to make moves so soon, but if the Celtics wanted to give up some trade pieces to teams that could contend they could easily get one back. The problem with that is that they would be less competitive anyway and will just be in the same spot.

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If I were the C’s, I’d just stand pat. But it bothers me how much Avery Bradley has worked at the point guard position and hasn’t made any real strides yet. Could this be a problem with the Bradley? Or is it the Celtics coaching development? We may never know exactly what it is. It could be a mix between the two. But all we do know is that the Celtics have a problem at the position without Rondo and it needs to be addressed in the future.