It's easy to paint Green optimistic

In the spirit of hopefulness, we bring you five reasons why the 2004-05 Celtics may not only be decent, but may also be able to register playoff television ratings beyond a 1.0. These are listed not in order of importance, but, sort of like Uma Thurman's hit list in "Kill Bill, Vol. 1," they are all of consequence.

Raef LaFrentz: He says he feels fine. The coach says he looks great. Ainge says he looks great. Paul Pierce said LaFrentz looks as fluid as he did when the two were teammates at Kansas. If any of this is true, and the season will tell us, then it would be huge. No one is asking LaFrentz to go 35 minutes a game. If he can, so much the better. But if he can give Rivers a solid 30 with all the things he once did so well -- shooting, rebounding, shot-blocking -- then the Celtics would have their most solid power forward in some time. (I never really thought of Antoine Walker as a power forward.) They'd also have a pretty decent 1-2 inside presence with LaFrentz and Mark Blount.

Gary Payton: He sounded downright Jeffersonian yesterday, saying all the right things and in precisely the right way -- and without any epithets. (OK, there were a couple of times I shuddered when he mentioned taking the kids under his wing.) The Celtics have cast their lot with Payton, to the point of flying him in for yesterday's session in a private plane. We know this isn't where Payton wants to be. We know this isn't the kind of team on which he wants to play. But if there's anything left in his tank, and he can give Rivers a solid 30 minutes, maybe there's hope. A lot of fans are hoping to see a new, energized, determined Payton running the team. I don't know if that Payton is still around. But I don't know that he isn't, either. It's all in his hands and it sounds as if Rivers is going to give Payton the ball and tell him to run the show.