This afternoon, NBA.com released the results of its annual GM Survey, and as you might expect, the Celtics are well-represented throughout.
First of all, two-thirds (66.7) of the leagues GMs picked Boston to win the Atlantic Division. This doesnt come as huge surprise seeing that the Cs have won the Atlantic crown in each of the last five seasons, but whats interesting is thatdespite the Sixers getting Andrew Bynum, the Nets re-loading and the Knicks having another year of chemistry-building under their beltmore GMs picked the Cs to win this year, than last year (64.3).
Only 3.3 percent of the GMs picked Boston to win the Eastern Conference, which isnt great, but its 3.3 percent more votes than any team not named Miami. The Heat received the remaining 96.7 percent.
In the positional groupings, Rajon Rondo picked up 6.9 percent of the votes for Best Point Guard, behind Chris Paul (69 percent) and Derrick Rose (20.7). Rondo also finished third in "Best Passer" and "Fastest with the Ball." KG was tied for fifth with Blake Griffin among power forwards at 6.7 percent.
One interesting twist here: LeBron was voted the leagues best small forward (73.3) and the league's third best power forward (16.7).
KG also finished second (23.3) to Chris Paul for "Best Leader."
The C's were big winners in the off-season section, as Jason Terry (13.3) and Courtney Lee (10.0) finished second and third, respectively, in the "Most Underrated Acquisition" category. Keeping with that theme, Jared Sullinger (17.3) was voted the rookie most likely to be a "Sleeper Success."
Boston Celtics
Defensively, Kevin Garnett was an honorable mention for "Best Defensive Player," Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo (6.7) tied for third (along with Thabo Sefolosha and Andre Iguodala) as the league's best perimeter defender, and the Celtics finished third (23.3) in the Best Defensive Team category.
Lastly, as you can imagine, Doc Rivers got a lot of love in the coaching categories, finishing second (13.3) in "Best Coach" and "Best Motivator" (40.0). In both cases, Gregg Popovich finished first.
So there you have it. Not a bad showing for the Celtics.
Think they should have done better? Fair enough. But don't get angry. Just consider the source. Despite their job description, most of these GMs don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to evaluating anything NBA-related.
Rich can be reached at rlevine@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Rich on Twitter at http:twitter.comrich_levine