So many times as a sports fan, people become caught up in “what ifs;” you know those hypothetical situations that could have happened but did not, or vice versa. Some of these predicaments are more outlandish than others.

Around here, some of the biggest “what ifs” range anywhere from “What if the Red Soxs didn’t trade Jeff Bagwell” to “What if the Bruins had swallowed hard and resigned Bill Guerin?”

Still, no series of “what ifs” hits any harder than those of your very own Boston Celtics. It’s one thing to have bad luck (the deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis, and the acquisition of the third and sixth picks in the 1997 NBA Draft despite having more ping-pong balls than anyone else in the lottery), but some of the personnel decisions have just been bone-headed.

There has been a flurry of free agent activity this off-season in the National Basketball Association, and I commend Danny Ainge for the moves he has made with the Celtics under a limited budget, but I cannot help but wonder what might have been.

Let’s go back to that fateful 1997 Draft. The Celtics had Antoine Walker, Rick Pitino (the object of the Bay State’s ire) and not much else. So, with the third and sixth picks in the draft, they selected Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer. Boston traded both players away; Billups for Kenny Anderson because Pitino did not feel as if Billups was the answer, while Mercer did himself in.

Mercer priced himself out; trading him for Danny Fortson (flop), Erick Washington (flop), Eric Williams (a scrappy role player), and a future first round draft pick, which turned out to be Kedrick Brown (still to be determined) was not a bad deal. Dealing Billups was, who more than proved his mettle in the league this past season with Detroit. All it took was patience — which is something Pitino never had.

Keep Billups, and substitute Mercer for Tracy McGrady, who went ninth and today is arguably the league’s best player. Now you have Billups, Walker, T-Mac, E-Will and not much else.

In 1998, the Celtics took Paul Pierce. No complaints here; he may be the toughest match-up for any shooting guard or small forward in the league. Now you have Pierce, Billups, Walker, McGrady and E-Will — young, but promising.

The Celtics traded Travis Knight for Tony Battie, possible the only good move during the Pitino Era. Battie is long, athletic, rebounds and blocks shots. Again, not special, but he gets the job done. Then he goes and screws that up by trading Andrew DeClercq and a first round pick for the rights to Vitaly Potapenko. Say he keeps DeClercq, and keeps that pick, which turned out to be the eighth pick in that draft. Pitino had said that if he kept the pick, he would have selected Shawn Marion, another prolific athlete who excels at defense, scoring and rebounding.

Now you have Battie, Marion, Pierce, Walker and T-Mac, with Billups and E-Will off the bench. Still a little young, but intriguing nonetheless.

The 2000 NBA Draft was probably one of the worst in the last decade, so we will not discuss that disaster. Besides, it gives the unit time to gel, and by that time Pitino will resign, and hand the team over to Jim O’Brien, one of the most underrated coaches in the league today.

The 2001 NBA Draft would put this hypothetical Celtics team over the top.

Instead of taking Joe Johnson, Brown and Joe Forte with those three picks, they select Troy Murphy (a markedly improved rebounder in his second NBA season), Richard Jefferson (one of the rising young studs in the league) and Tony Parker (another talented youngster who started on last year’s NBA championship team).

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2002 NBA finalists and eventual world champion Boston Celtics. Why? Look at this depth chart:

C: Battie

PF: Walker

SF: Marion

SG: Pierce

PG: McGrady

Bench: F/C Murphy (he’s a center in the size-starved east), PG/SG Billups, PG Parker, SG/SF Jefferson, SF Williams

Now, you employ a coach like O’Brien who adapts his game planning to his team’s strengths and weaknesses, and he has a collective that could run all day with a deep bench. Granted, the squad is a bit undersized (what free agent wouldn’t take the mid-level exception to run with these guys?), but would use speed and athleticism to outrun any team in the east and easily stomp with western conference foes. Figure at least 60 wins a year for the next decade, about 4-6 championships and it’s the Celtics dynasty of the ’60s and ’80s all over again.

– Evans Erilus may be reached at [email protected]