Posted By: LYNN WORTHY, Sun Staff

If you're looking for the standard position-by-position grades...well, sorry. I've never seen a season play out position-by-position, so I don't break it down that way. Here goes the tale of the season so far.

WHERE THEY WERE: At the start of the season, the questions were abundant, all the answers appeared to fall into the category To Be Determined, and youth was the only certainty for Doc Rivers and Danny Ainge (pictured).

The opening day Cs had an entire roster of guys they “wanted to take a look at� and as the season progressed that amounted to a bench rotation as fickle as New England weather.

Nobody predicted a Celtics run at the Eastern Conference crown ( that is, unless you took up Gretzky’s wife on that bet), and the organization didn’t seem to set the bar sky high for what would be considered success this year. The keys were evaluation and player development.

At times the team defensive technique similar to a bullfighter, (toro, toro, olay), execution at the end of games often looked like a foreign concept, and trade rumors caused an uneasy locker room.

WHERE THEY ARE: Pierce is having a career year as well as growing into the role as the leader on this basketball team. He’ll be playing in his fifth All-Star game on Sunday. Partnering with Wally Szczerbiak is working well so far, and Pierce now has a proven veteran he can turn to on the court.

Delonte West has settled into the point guard spot and even got an invite to the rookie-sophomore game at All-Star Weekend. He’s also shown that he’s got a knack for making smart choices with the ball (49 percent shooting from field, 2.5 to 1 assist-turnover ratio).

Before their injuries, Al Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins were showing flashes of their potential and beginning to gel on the court together. In his last eight games Jefferson averaged 10.5 points and just under 7.8 rebounds per game in 24.5 minutes per game, while Perkins tossed in 7.8 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game in about 26 minutes per game over his last eight games.

All reports are that Gerald Green has benefited from his time in the Developmental League where he‘s been able to focus on playing NBA-quality defense, learning to move without the ball, and adding muscle.

Rookie forward Ryan Gomes, the all-time leading scorer in Providence College history, has shown some that he can be a valuable frontcourt sub when Jefferson and Perkins are healthy. In his three starts since being uprooted from his plot on the bench, Gomes has scored 10.6 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game.

WHERE THEY’RE GOING: With a record of 20-32, the Celtics are five games out of the eight playoff spot currently held by Philadelphia. As a team, turnovers are starting to be slow down lately, falling from what was close to an 18 per game pace.

Still, the execution at the end of games hasn’t been anything worth writing home about. The Celtics are still struggling on the road (4-20), and they’re still allowing opponents to score 99.8 points per game against them. Knowing what to do at the end of games, playing well on the road, and playing tough team defense are the types of things that can make or put the brakes on any potential playoff run.

While a high draft pick might be enticing to some, the real focus should be putting up a good enough showing down the stretch that they keep Pierce convinced that the team is heading somewhere soon. Otherwise, things could get ugly as Pierce is only under contract through 2006-2007, meaning he may have some leverage for demanding a trade if he’s not happy with the team’s hopes for the near future.

What's your take on the Celtics?