2. Do everything in your power to convince (Kevin) Garnett to come back for another year or two. Send (Doc) Rivers, (Rajon) Rondo and (Paul) Pierce out to Malibu for a good old-fashioned recruiting trip. Whatever it takes. Garnett led the team in scoring with 19.2 points a game in the playoffs. And he doesn’t even like scoring. He averaged 10.3 boards and 37 minutes a game. At 36, at the end of his 17th year in the league, he played as well as he has since coming to Boston. He’s David Ortiz [stats] without the self-pity.

Pierce said Garnett “changed the culture of everything we did around here” and “held everyone accountable, from the ballboys to the chef to the guy who flew the plane.” Now the question for (Danny) Ainge: Who does that if KG takes his talents to LA?

Remarkably Garnett has emerged as the best free agent on the market, or at least the one with the best big game. Ainge isn’t tipping his hand, but we know we would love to get Garnett signed at a nice little hometown, I-only-want-to-play-for-Doc discount. Ainge doesn’t drink alcohol, but he must have felt a nice warm glow yesterday when he clicked on ESPN.com and saw what one writer suggested would be a reasonable solution to the Celtics’ Garnett dilemma.

via Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald