For all of Green’s success last season, his PER still settled at 15. That’s a career best – and still average. While he was the Celtics’ best player during long stretches against the Knicks in the playoffs (especially defensively), he also had stretches where he disappeared. Doctors have said it would take a full season for Green to fully recover from heart surgery. He has that now, as well as a full (or mostly full) season alongside Rondo to be the Celtics’ top scoring option. Can he rise to the occasion?
4. Which players have any value, and what kind of moves will the Celtics make to capitalize on them? The very minor move of Fab Melo to Memphis for Donte Greene is actually a big deal financially for the 
Celtics. If they waive Greene and his non-guaranteed contract, they will get themselves about $500,000 under the tax line, a place the Celtics need to be this year. That should tell you a lot about Danny Ainge’s mentality this season.
The Celtics are not going to spend money on any free agents, and any moves they make will be to (a) shed more salary and (b) acquire assets such as young players or future draft picks. The Celtics already have acquired four first-round picks this summer (2014, 2016, 2018 from Brooklyn and 2015 from the Los Angeles Clippers as compensation for Rivers). They also have the right to swap places with Brooklyn in 2017. But they want more. The Celtics have a bit of a weird roster right now with too many guys that play very similar positions. So this season will undoubtedly be a type of months-long audition for many of these players who will be available to other teams.
The big contracts the Celtics would love to move are the two newly acquired forwards from Brooklyn, Kris Humphries and Gerald Wallace. Wallace will be the trickier one because he has two more seasons after this one at $10 million each, so the Celtics will have to find a way to make him especially effective this season so other teams can see the value in giving up something for him. Humphries’ $12 million deal is expiring, so even if he walks, the Celtics will save money going into next summer.
But the team would love to find a way to attach one of their shooting guards to his expiring contract in a deal. There isn’t enough room on this team for Courtney Lee, Jordan Crawford, MarShon Brooks and Avery Bradley. Considering Bradley is a restricted free agent next summer, the Celtics would probably like to have a little breathing room to sign him. This all means that the team will be gauging interest on the rest of these guys (and probably forward Brandon Bass, too) throughout the season.
If Ainge and the Celtics can get a few of them to prove to other GMs that they can help during a playoff run, then he can stockpile more of those draft picks that are of supreme value under this new CBA. But if Ainge can’t, then the Celtics might be saddled with some dead weight as they try to pull off a quick rebuild.
5. Are the youngsters pieces of a core around which the Celtics can build? Aside from Rondo, for obvious reasons, Bradley, 2012 first-round pick Jared Sullinger and 2013 first-round pick Kelly Olynyk are the three most valuable players on the roster. They are young, good, and cheap. But how good can they be?
Bradley has shown some very good and very bad things in his short time in Boston. He has been a top-notch defender who – when playing off the ball – can find holes in the defense and burn teams offensively with backdoor cuts or corner 
threes. But when Rondo went down, Bradley showed that he really isn’t capable of being a point guard. He is unsure when dribbling and running the offense, which drags down his passing and shooting to a point where he becomes an offensive liability.
Sullinger, meanwhile, started earning his stripes as a down-and-dirty rebounder who contributed to the offense without having to plays run specifically for him. He is also a very smart defender who makes up for a lack of size and jumping ability by anticipating the opponent’s moves very well and getting into position to take charges.
But Sullinger had back surgery to correct a disc issue midway through last season. He has been cleared to return to basketball activities, and doctors say this should correct the problem. But back issues are always tricky, and it’s always better to see for yourself whether a player is back to normal. Furthermore, Sullinger doesn’t have Garnett or Pierce around to attract attention – this is a running theme throughout the season until the effect of their departure is fully realized – so he will attract some more defensive attention. He might not be able to float into cracks in the defense for some of the offensive rebounds he was getting last season.
Olynyk impressed the hell out of some scouts in Orlando this summer. The 7-footer from Gonzaga showed he can hit from long range, put the ball on the floor and work in the post. It drew pie-in-the-sky comparisons to Dirk Nowitzki, which has Celtics fans salivating at the thought of a potential mid-first-round steal.
But Olynyk has yet to play in an NBA game or go through an official NBA practice. It’s one thing to do some of the things he did against a bunch of guys who may not make it in the league. It’s quite another to do it against the game’s elite players. There is no doubt he is in for a rude awakening at some point.
So the Celtics will see this season if these three guys are truly the quality of player that can be key cogs in a future championship team, or simply guys that will settle into nice roles off the bench and are ultimately expendable. Each has the potential to be either of those things. It’s a transition season for the Celtics, and they have a lot of questions that need to be answered before they can truly take the next step in their rebuilding process.
On paper, the team seems to have some nice pieces that if pulled together properly can be fairly competitive for a team in this position. But fate doesn’t always allow for the best-case scenario. In this tightrope walk across the chasm that is the NBA’s salary cap and luxury tax, the Celtics have to avoid missteps that could send them plunging into the abyss of mediocrity.
John Karalis is the co-founder of RedsArmy.com. He is also a frequent contributor to many other NBA outlets and radio broadcasts. You can follow him on Twitter @RedsArmy_John
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Kris Humphries would be playing for a new contract, he has no distractions anymore, and he started working out early, in May. He’s about 28, so he might have a break out year and have value.
MarShon Brooks on the other hand is a scoring machine, who can create his own shot. Problem is that he can’t do anything else, and with the logjam as SG, his value will not go up if he can’t get lots of playing time.
Celtics can count on shedding Keith Bogans Bonus $5 million salary after the season.