What's up with Doc?

	Paul Pierce is having his best season yet, averaging career highs in points (27.9) and rebounds (9.4). John Biever/SI

I had a surprisingly upbeat conversation with the Celtics' lead owner Monday. Contrary to league-wide perceptions, he didn't sound like he was preparing to fire coach Doc Rivers.

"Doc is a very good coach for the team,'' said Wyc Grousbeck, the Celtics managing partner. "Doc has done as well as he could be expected to do with the players that he's been given.''

I've been questioning this ownership group since executive director Danny Ainge's reckless 2003 decision to trade Antoine Walker, which -- regardless of complaints about Walker's terminal 3-pointeritis -- robbed the Celtics of their best rebounder and No. 2 All-Star, abandoning Paul Pierce to a team that (as of Tuesday) has gone 100-129 without Walker on the roster the last three years.

In that time the Celtics have looked good for one stretch -- after their February 2005 trade to bring Walker back, which led to a 18-9 finish after a 27-28 start. I've always believed that the Celtics should have held onto Walker and kept making the playoffs while continuing to draft from the same mid-to-late first-round pool that has brought them Delonte West, Al Jefferson, Gerald Green and Rajon Rondo, who along with second-round picks Ryan Gomes and Leon Powe represent the future of the team.

Instead of trading for a couple of veterans in their late 20s to team up with Pierce last summer, the Celtics went the other way and made themselves younger than ever. Look at Boston's top 11 scorers and you'll find that Pierce and Wally Szczerbiak are the only players with more than three years of NBA experience; a half-dozen of them could still be upperclassmen in college. No other rebuilder -- not even the Hawks, Bobcats or Trail Blazers -- puts as young a team on the floor as the Celtics, and all of their youngsters are complementary types. There isn't a dominant future star among them, which is why it's unlikely they'll be able to package a trade for an established star to fill the cavity of Walker's premature departure.

It's also why they're headed for their third losing season in four years. Fortunately for Boston, this is a good year to be bad because the upcoming draft is loaded with future stars like Florida's 6-foot-11 Joakim Noah, Texas' 6-10 Kevin Durant and Greg Oden, the 7-footer from Ohio State whom Rivers compares to the greatest Celtic of them all ("He blocks shots, runs the floor and plays team basketball like a young Bill Russell,'' says Rivers).

The Celtics don't need to tank their season to have a realistic shot at landing Oden -- of the last seven lotteries, four have been won by teams with the fifth-, sixth- or seventh-worst records. If the heavenly spirit of Red Auerbach fails to deliver such luck, it's a deep enough draft that they could still land a star with the No. 7 or 8 pick.

Ainge is known for impatience dating back to his traumatic rookie year when he not only dealt Walker but also acquired the poisonous Ricky Davis, leading to the abrupt resignation of coach Jim O'Brien. NBA rivals will be expecting the Celtics to make a big midseason trade for the fourth straight year, especially if crowds are small and the fans are booing as they were last week amid Boston's 1-6 start.

Yet when I approached Ainge last Friday, he confirmed that the plan is to develop the youngsters and hope to land a great player in the draft. Grousbeck agreed that another midseason trade is likely to improve the Celtics. "We've looked at teams that have had NBA success, and it's very rare to have an impact player come from another team,'' he said. "Every team has 'tradeable' players and 'untradeable' players. Why should we want somebody's 'tradeable' players?''

I was prepared to lay out the reasons why the Celtics need to build with Rivers, but Grousbeck beat me to it. He noted that Rivers helped Pierce become an elite player last year, that the young players are improving and that the Celtics play hard virtually every night. "We are consistently impressed with Doc's work effort and what Doc has gotten out of the young players,'' Grousbeck said. "The team is playing hard, which is the first criterion for the coach. They're working hard in practice and doing the extra work to get better.''

Rivers could ultimately help Boston overcome its reputation as an NBA city that is unwelcoming to African-American players. Contrary to his reputation in Orlando, where he was wrestled for control over personnel, you never hear Rivers complaining (as many coaches would) that Ainge has given him a younger roster each training camp. His main deficiency has been a preference for the offensive end of the floor, but Pierce says that Rivers spent most of the preseason drilling on defense -- so at least the coach is trying to improve his weak points as well.

Because Rivers likes this team and they so clearly respond to him, the Celtics should continue to play hard and grow this season. Because they're so young, they should win no more than 35 games while avoiding charges that they're tanking the season. But the fragile dynamic will collapse if the owners cave under the pressure of a losing season and create doubt in Rivers that in turn undermines his authority over the players.

Fans may blame the coach for losing games, but this season will actually serve as a referendum on the Celtics owners. After an unpromising start, can they exhibit the patience and wisdom needed to build a championship contender? It was a good early sign that Grousbeck was willing to stake his management team to Rivers, but the real test is yet to come.