Wallace Makes Celtics NBA's Best Team

Yes, there are still plenty of nice names remaining on the free agent list.

But with all due respect to the guys left, the last difference-maker has been claimed: Rasheed Wallace. According to various reports, Wallace will sign with the Celtics.

That makes the Celtics the best team heading into next season.

More: Wallace Reportedly Signing With Celtics

Yeah, Jason Kidd is still out there, but it looks like he's returning to Dallas. That's not going to change the landscape, at least not at the top. Lamar Odom? Tough to see him leaving L.A.

Andre Miller ... Shawn Marion ... David Lee ... Drew Gooden ... Antonio McDyess ... Grant Hill. All players who will help a team but not put it over. Which is what Wallace just did for Boston.

The Celtics may have only been a Kevin Garnett away from repeating in the first place in 2009. Now, the Celtics could be heading into next year's postseason with Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen and Wallace.

That's championship-caliber in any league. But that's how good Wallace is and what he would have meant to any contender, quite frankly. Sure, the Celtics were the lucky ones, yet what's most important here is that Wallace would have made any and all of the handful of contenders the favorite.

Consider Wallace heading to Cleveland. All of a sudden you'd be talking about a Cavaliers team that exchanged a front line of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao for Shaquille O'Neal and Wallace. Advantage: Cleveland.

We're not sure yet if Orlando -- having lost Hedo Turkoglu, (likely) Marcin Gortat and Courtney Lee, and gotten back Vince Carter – is better or worse than the team that just lost to the Lakers in the Finals.

But we'd know the answer if Wallace had found his way to the Magic, like Carter had hoped: Better.

Wallace also looked into the Spurs. San Antonio already had kept its window open by acquiring Richard Jefferson from the Bucks. That's an impressive fourth option. Then you start imagining Wallace up front, sometimes playing alongside Tim Duncan and other times backing him up, and that would have been a squad right there, boy.

And then there's the Lakers, the current residing best team in the NBA. But are they? Who says they're better off with Ron Artest and without Trevor Ariza? Nobody knows how Artest will fit in. Wallace, on the other hand, is almost a guaranteed plus on the chemistry-meter for Boston, a true glue guy and as unselfish as they come.

What we know is that Wallace is going to play for the Celtics next season. Which makes them the team to beat heading into next season.

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Orlando Magic basketball player Vince Carter prepares to drive a pace car prior to the start of the NASCAR Coke Zero 400 auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Saturday, July 4, 2009.(AP Photo/Terry Renna)

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - JULY 04: Vince Carter, NBA star, drives the official pace car prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 51st Annual Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway on July 4, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR) *** Local Caption *** Vince Carter

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Baron Davis, a basketball player for Los Angeles Clippers team of the National Basketball Association (NBA), looks at Indian children play basketball during a basketball awareness event in Mumbai July 3, 2009. Davis inaugurated 'NBA Jam', a seven-week promotional event in Indian cities, organised by NBA and the Basketball Federation of India. REUTERS/Arko Datta (INDIA SPORT BASKETBALL)

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Baron Davis, a basketball player for Los Angeles Clippers team of the National Basketball Association (NBA), balances basketballs during a basketball awareness event in Mumbai July 3, 2009. Davis inaugurated 'NBA Jam', a seven-week promotional event in Indian cities, organised by NBA and the Basketball Federation of India. REUTERS/Arko Datta (INDIA SPORT BASKETBALL)

Reuters

Baron Davis, a basketball player for Los Angeles Clippers team of the National Basketball Association (NBA), helps an Indian boy to put a basketball into the hoop during a basketball awareness event in Mumbai July 3, 2009. Davis inaugurated 'NBA Jam', a seven-week promotional event in Indian cities, organised by NBA and the Basketball Federation of India. REUTERS/Arko Datta (INDIA SPORT BASKETBALL SOCIETY)

Reuters

Baron Davis, a basketball player for Los Angeles Clippers team of the National Basketball Association (NBA), helps an Indian boy to put a basketball into the hoop during a basketball awareness event in Mumbai July 3, 2009. Davis inaugurated "NBA Jam", a seven-week promotional event in Indian cities, organised by NBA and the Basketball Federation of India. REUTERS/Arko Datta (INDIA SPORT BASKETBALL)

Reuters

Newest member of the Cleveland Cavaliers Shaquille O'Neal holds up his new jersey, accompanied by two young fans, during a press conference at the Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence, Ohio, Thursday, July 2, 2009. (Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal/MCT)

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Cleveland Cavaliers' General Manager Danny Ferry, left, and owner Dan Gilbert, center, present new Cavaliers member Shaquille O'Neal with a pair of winter boots during an introductory press conference at the Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence, Ohio, Thursday, July 2, 2009. (Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal/MCT)

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Cleveland Cavaliers' General Manager Danny Ferry, left, laughs as new Cavaliers member Shaquille O'Neal holds a photo of the two in a game during an introductory press conference at the Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence, Ohio, Thursday, July 2, 2009. (Mike Cardew/Akron Beacon Journal/MCT)

MCT

Cleveland Cavaliers center Shaquille O'Neal arrives at his introductory news conference at the Cavaliers practice facility in Independence, Ohio, Thursday, July 2, 2009. O'Neal was acquired by the Cavs from the Phoenix Suns in a June 25 trade. (AP Photo/Phil Long)