Unstable, or right on track?

WALTHAM -- The resignation of Celtics coach Jim O'Brien rates as more than just another distraction in a season full of personnel changes. Trades, suspensions, and injuries do not carry symbolic weight the way the departure of a loyal coach does.

That much was clear Tuesday when director of basketball operations Danny Ainge announced O'Brien had resigned. Owners Wyc Grousbeck, Steve Pagliuca, and Robert Epstein sat beside Ainge, showing their support for the man they hired to turn the Celtics into a championship team.

In the days since O'Brien resigned, no one has called the former head coach a quitter. Everyone knows O'Brien does not deserve that label. But what does the O'Brien resignation say about the current state of the Celtics under Ainge?

"I saw [the resignation] coming a long time ago when they started breaking up the team," said Eric Williams, who was traded to Cleveland Dec. 15. "I can understand how Jim O'Brien felt. It felt like there were two coaches out there. I knew who my coach was. The guys that Jim O'Brien had [been with the longest] were isolated. The guys that Danny brought in, he talked basketball a lot with those guys. It seemed like there were two different teams. I feel sorry about the whole situation. Everything we built and everything we were striving for is coming down. It's like they were taking bricks out of the foundation one by one. Then, the whole house collapsed."

Depending on whom you talk with, Boston is either an unstable franchise in disarray or a team on a three-year path to bigger and better accomplishments. Veterans like Paul Pierce and Mark Blount, who were with the Celtics when they reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2002, are frustrated by the rapid succession of changes brought on by Ainge.

In the second year of a six-year maximum contract, Pierce could spend the prime of his career as part of a rebuilding project, certainly not what he expected or wanted when he signed his lucrative extension.

When the 26-year-old was asked yesterday about spending his best years working to bring Boston back to where it was two years ago, Pierce took his time formulating an answer. Finally, he smiled and talked about how he has always been an optimist.

"The East is down this year and we're trying to develop as a young team, which is fine with me," said Pierce. "I feel like I have a lot of good years left. I still have four more years left on my contract. I feel like I'm still in a good situation. You do get a little frustrated, but then you always look at the positives. I think the base of talent is definitely there."

At the end of this season, Blount has a player option to return or not. Don't be surprised if he leaves town for another team.

"Right now, the young guys don't have a clue that this is still a business and that they've got to go out and perform," Blount said. "The season's not over. The state of the union is up in the air. Right now, everybody's pretty much all over the place. It's up to the front office and everybody to get everybody together."

When asked whether it was possible to get "everybody together" at this point, given all that has happened with the Celtics this season, Blount added, "I don't know. People I've been used to going to war with are not here. These guys [here now] don't know how to go to war yet. It can't be told. It's got to be within. You can't replace that. But [management] decided what was good for their organization."

Management (read: Ainge) brought in players who would help him proceed with his three-year plan. Despite the resignation of O'Brien, Ainge claimed the Celtics remain on pace with his plan to contend for a championship. When pressed for specifics about the grand plan, Ainge said, "To build a better team and I guarantee you, we're going to be better. We're going to be there."

He would not discuss what he envisioned as the next best move for Boston because it would involve players currently on the roster.

"As far as I'm concerned, keep speculating, keep wondering, keep dreaming that Danny's being reckless with no plan," said Ainge. "I don't care. It's ludicrous. If they can't see it, that's OK with me. I have a plan that's going to work. I have a plan to build a team that is better offensively than we've been, that is good defensively. But you have to have talent to win. You have to have character and professionalism to win. That's my plan, to develop that. And you have to have a coach who is the leader of that group. And you have to have players on the team that are leaders. That's all in the plan.

"That doesn't happen in six months. It takes time. So, my plan hasn't wavered from the first day to today. I know that's easy to say. But if every move is judged as its own entity, then that is very, very shortsighted. There is a plan and we are on the same page in this organization. It's not in chaos. [The plan] is well formulated and well thought out and it will be successful."

Support for Ainge and his plan comes from an unlikely source: O'Brien. Although O'Brien did not believe he could coach the team, he thinks Ainge will ultimately be successful with his vision.

"I see good things," said O'Brien, when asked about the Celtics' future. "I think they're going to put a very exciting brand of basketball on the court with athletic guys. I think Danny will tweak it until he gets it right. In the long run, and I hope it's not too long of a run, people will just see why Danny made the moves that he made. I think they have the right guy to lead them."