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The signing of Mark Blount was a nice first step, but the Celtics still have plenty of work to do.

With Mark Blount (surprisingly) back in the fold for the Boston Celtics, President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge can now set his sights on shaping the rest of team in his image and getting back into serious contention for the Eastern Conference.

Why did the Celtics give Mark Blount 6 years and 41 million dollars to stay in Boston? Look at the rest of the Celtics’ roster: Tony Allen, Chucky Atkins, Marcus Banks, Ernest Brown (who’s deal becomes guaranteed if he’s still on the roster come regular season), Ricky Davis, Al Jefferson, Jumaine Jones, Raef LaFrentz, Walter McCarty, Kendrick Perkins, Paul Pierce, Michael Stewart, Jiri Welsch and Delonte West. (For now, we’ll leave out Chris Mihm and Justin Reed, as neither has signed a contract). Right now, the Celtics have nine wing players, two high school projects and the immortal Yogi Stewart. Not quite the Towers of Power at Healthpoint.

As impressive as Al Jefferson has been so far in the summer league (13 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.6 blocks in the Orlando league) he’s coming from high school and can’t realistically be expected to put up those sorts of numbers against experienced NBA big men. (Brian Scalabrine put up 21 in a summer league game. That tells you something.) Same with Kendrick Perkins. He is still a work in progress and anything that comes from him this year is a bonus. When last we saw Raef LaFrentz, he was limping around a full five months after knee surgery - not a good sign. The whole point of LaFrentz undergoing surgery was to make sure that he was healthy for this year, but there's no guarantee that he's good to go. With Brandon Hunter now using his bruising body to rebound for the Bobcats, Ernest Brown still raw as a player and Yogi Stewart merely a nice guy who should never see major minutes for an NBA team - the Celtics were potentially a team without a center.

That’s why it was so important for the Celtics to make sure that Mark Blount was with this team in ’04 – ’05. Blount is never going to be a first option for the Celtics, but he does all the little things that a team needs to win in the NBA. Blount plays hard every night. He averaged almost eight boards a game for a team that was near the bottom of the league in rebounding. He’ll occasionally explode and carry the team for a quarter and he’s the best antidote to the Dan Gadzurics of the world. I guarantee you, the Celtics will not be beaten this year because some random center explodes for 35 points. Is he gonna stop Shaq? Absolutely not, but no one really can. Blount will, however, slow down Jermaine O’Neal and make Eddy Curry work for every basket. Blount’s a proven NBA center and sometimes you just have to overpay to keep your players around.

But Blount isn’t the only piece of the Celtic puzzle. His signing still leaves the Green with an abundance of wing guys and only one real rebounder. The best part of Blount’s deal is that with the Celtics holding his Larry Bird rights they still retained their mid-level exception (around 5 million) to spend on a player. With Antonio McDyess and his knee braces heading to Detroit the pickings are slim, but there are still a few solid big men who would come for cheap money such as Worcester project Michael Bradley, Marcus Fizer or Tractor Traylor. I know that’s not much in the way of star power, but its not like these guys would be coming to play major minutes – just provide insurance and spell Blount and LaFrentz when they need a breather or get into some foul trouble. Rumors have the Celtics in discussions with Memphis’ Stromile Swift, but GM Jerry West is very insistent that they will match any offer for the restricted free agent.

The other rumor floating around is that the Celtics have contacted the agents for former Celtics Eric Williams and Rodney Rodgers. I love the way Eric Williams plays. He comes with intensity, professionalism and the will to win every night. But he’s not the answer for the Celtics. Eric would be a great locker room guy and a good veteran for the rookies to learn from, but he’s not going to get on the floor with this logjam of players. Also, it would look rather odd for Danny to re-sign a player he traded away 8 months ago.

Rodney Rogers is not the way to go, either. He was tremendous when he was here and without the contributions of Rodgers and Tony Delk, the Celtics never would have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals two years ago. But, since he left Boston for New Jersey he has been slowed by injuries and weight. Never known as a tenacious rebounder anyway, Rodgers’ game is much more suited to float on the perimeter and pull big men away from the basket, only sneaking in for the occasional board. The C’s already have a player who does that in Walter McCarty.

Even if the Celtics don’t go forward and sign another free agent with the exception, they are still left with roster problems. With Blount re-signing, they have a full roster of 15 players under contract, without keeping restricted free agent Chris Mihm. Also, head coach Doc Rivers has been open about the team needing a big small forward and second round pick Justin Reed seems to fit that mold. With that in mind, here are three trades that would help the C’s out (sidebar: I’m proposing these assuming Danny wasn’t joking when he said he wouldn’t trade Paul Pierce):

- P.J. Brown for Ricky Davis and Jumaine Jones. P.J. Brown is starting to get up there in age and was never fleet of foot to begin with. New Hornet’s Head Coach Byron Scott likes to use that Princeton, running offense and as Boston fans can tell you, Ricky can run and Jumaine has some speed, but just got lost in the shuffle last season. Also, Ricky could provide some insurance in case Jamal Mashburn can’t overcome his recent round of injuries. As for Boston, Brown would form a pretty nice tandem with Blount and a good mentor for a couple years for Perkins and Jefferson.

- Ricky Davis, Chucky Atkins and Yogi Stewart for Nick Van Exel. Ok, bear with me on this one. I originally had this deal going down when Van Exel was still on the Warriors, but despite his move to the Blazers, this still works. The Celtics get an explosive point guard who still has a few miles on his tires and a contract that expires after this year. The Blazers get a big man in Stewart (and you can never have enough of those in the Western Conference), a steady-handed point guard in Atkins to help back-up Stoudamire and tutor Telfair and Ricky could give them some much-needed athleticism on the wings should Darius Miles end up playing elsewhere.

If it seems like I’m down on Ricky, I’m not. But with the great play of Tony Allen in the summer leagues (13.4 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.2 steals) the coaching staff is very high on him and Delonte West. They’re looking to get some court time for the two rookies and they’re not going to do that if Allen and West are sitting behind Pierce, Davis and Welsh. It’s just a number crunch and Ricky’s contract would probably bring back the most value. But, before anyone accuses me of being anti-Ricky…

- Jiri Welsh and Yogi Stewart for Juwan Howard. Jeff Van Gundy loves smart players and Jiri has a great basketball IQ. Also, as of right now, Tyronn Lue is the only point guard with experience on Houston’s roster and Jiri had a chance to run the point for the C’s last year as well as play 2 other positions. As an added bonus, Stewart is about to go into the last year of his deal and has a very moveable contract should Houston so desire. Again, this gives the Celtics a tutor for the young guys and a nice tandem with Blount. Howard made it a point to sign with an Eastern Conference team last year and I doubt he’s happy being back in the West, even if he’s standing next to Yao Ming.

Now, if the Rockets get insistent, the coaching staff feels like Marcus Banks is ready to have the keys to the team and Delonte West becomes a steady backup, Chucky Atkins can be swapped instead of Stewart. That would give Van Gundy a true point guard instead of Welsch and Atkins would bring stability to the Rockets backcourt.

So, those are just a couple ideas of what the Celtics can do to get some rebounding help, clear a few roster spots to keep Mihm or sign Reed and get some playing time for the rookies who didn’t just get out of high school. But, any way you look at it, there is a lot of work to be done for the Celtics before training camp rolls around.