FanHouse KevinGarnett

I wrote in September that perhaps there would be no worthy center to start for the West in the All-Star Game.

But this isn't the way I want to see that solved. Do it on the court, not with the ballot.

When the All-Star ballot came out Tuesday, Phoenix power forward Amar'e Stoudemire strangely was listed as a center. Yes, Stoudemire has played center before, but he's started all eight games for Suns this season at power forward, with Channing Frye being the starting center.

It is true the ballot, which was selected by six media members from around the country, had to be decided upon before the season began in order to provide time for printing. But it has been apparent since at least September that Frye would Phoenix's starting center, with Stoudemire at power forward.

There were two lingering questions for the Celtics coming into this, a season where they are widely expected to contend for a championship. The first was the status of Kevin Garnett's knee which appears to be just fine. You can notice a very slight hobble by Garnett after an ill-advised dunk, but that could just be reverberations from the accompanying unnecessary screaming.

The other was the contract status of Rajon Rondo, who was working on an extension to avoid entering restricted free agency by remaining with the Celtics. Talks had slowed, and Rondo was making comments to the effect that it was possible he wouldn't end up in Boston.

Bad news for the rest of the league: he will end up in Boston. Early Monday after a fortunate extension from the league for all teams in negotiations, the Celtics and Rondo reached an agreement on a 5-year, $55 million extension, according to ESPN.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Celtics are a good team. This is, by most accounts, an understatement.

Boston finished with a record of 62-20 last season, despite the fact that the heart and soul of its defense, Kevin Garnett, missed 22 of the team's final 26 games with a knee injury.

Garnett missed the playoffs as well, but that didn't stop the Celtics from taking the eventual Eastern Conference champions to seven games in the second round, before their title defense ended two rounds earlier than they had expected for most of the season.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the NBA's race for a championship is far less interesting with Kevin Garnett on the sidelines. Nothing would have been better to see the Celtics defend their title at full strength last season, and nothing would be better than a full strength Boston squad -- plus Rasheed Wallace -- battling the Cavaliers and the Magic to come out of the Eastern Conference this year.

But while KG is indeed back to practicing with his teammates, as you'll see in the following video clip, his knee appears to be far from ready for the rigors of the regular season.

When Kevin Garnett first sustained his knee injury back in February, it didn't look to be something that would keep him on the sidelines for very long. He initially missed 13 games, then came back for some limited playing time in four contests, before he was shut down by the team, but presumably only until the playoffs.

Well, we all saw how that turned out.

A few weeks turned into the rest of the season, and here we are -- about two weeks before the start of training camp -- and KG still isn't back to playing full-court basketball.

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Monday, there are 50 days remaining.

Back in 1996, the NBA asked a group of basketball experts to come up with a list of the 50 greatest players in the history of the league. It was the 50th anniversary of the NBA, after all.

It was an impressive list, of course, with the likes of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Rick Barry, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan, etc. The full list can be seen here.

A hundred years from now, those players likely will still be on any list of top-50 players in league history. But what about some other players on that list, the ones toward the back end of 50 ... Paul Arizin, Dave Bing, Sam Jones, Hal Greer, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Walton, Robert Parish and a few others?

Tip-Off Timer counts down the days until the first game of the 2009-10 season. On Thursday, there are 54 days remaining.

Plenty of NBA cities have been waiting too long for a championship. Only one modern era expansion team has won a title (the Heat in 2006); most championships are won by old NBA stalwarts (Boston, L.A. Lakers), ABA crossovers (San Antonio) or ... well, actually, those teams win most of the titles.

Minnesota's drought actually extends beyond the 1989 birth of the Timberwolves, though. The Twin Cities got a taste of the ultimate success back in the early years of the Lakers, when the team won five of the first six NBA championships, the last of which earned in 1954. But with the retirement of George Mikan and the eventual move to Hollywood, Minnesota is still waiting for the next basketball title.

On Friday here on FanHouse, Tim Povtak reported that the Celtics were hot on the trail for free-agent swingman Marquis Daniels to bolster their team as they reload in the OK Corral the Eastern Conference has become this summer.

Looks like the C's have their man.

Daniels' agent confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that the Celtics are in the final stages of working out a sign-and-trade for Daniels with his former club, the Pacers. If that fails, the biannual exception is in the Celtics' back pocket, with Daniels ready to accept.

There's a little NBA trading spice coming out of Woj's internet-making machine recently, in the form of (another?) rumor involving Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo. This time, they were reportedly offered to Detroit in a deal that would have sent Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey to Beantown.

(Quick aside: Is it just me or is the NBA offseason easily the most fun of any sport?) Anyway, it appears, based on Woj's sources, that this rumor is likely to gain very little steam, primarily because Danny Ainge is dealing with "Bring in Rasheed Wallace to win a championship" Joe Dumars, as opposed to "Draft Darko, Trade Chauncey for Iverson" Joe Dumars.