Boston Celtic fans, be afraid. Be very afraid.

The news yesterday that the executive director of basketball operations for the Celtics, Danny Ainge, had called former Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller to see if he’d come out of retirement has taken some of the glow off of last week’s acquisition of Kevin Garnett.

The trade for Garnett all but gutted the Celtics roster. All the giddy hopes for the conference finals or (gasp!) the NBA Finals coming to TD Banknorth Garden rested on Ainge filling up the roster with a sturdy set of reserves. While Garnett, guard Ray Allen, and swingman Paul Pierce make up a formidable trio, the team will not go far without a solid supporting cast. As fans in New Jersey and Washington, D.C., can tell you in a heartbeat, the NBA game isn’t three-on-three.

Early to mid-August is a great time to be shopping for these kinds of players. Most rosters are set and there are several players without a team to call home. These are the sort of players who either got squeezed off of their rosters due to other personnel moves, luxury tax concerns, or players who were summer league standouts on teams that have no immediate plans for them. These sorts of players are cheap — by NBA standards, that is — and typically hungry, since solid play may net them a guaranteed seven-figure deal.

Here’s a list of candidates I’d be looking at if I were in the Boston front office. Let’s start with Hassan Adams, who was good enough to play in 66 games for the Nets last season, and started eight of them. Squeezed off the roster due to luxury tax phobia following the signing of Jamaal Magliore, he’s an energy player who could easily play like the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Ryan Gomes for the men in green. C.J. Miles is a Utah Jazz castoff that had a good season in 2005–06, but was shoved out of the rotation by the emergence of Deron Williams and the arrival of Dee Brown and Ronnie Brewer. Miles is only 20: Tall 20-year-old point guards who have shown some NBA acumen deserve a long look. Forward Zarko Cabarkapa put up good numbers in limited minutes with the Phoenix Suns and the Golden State Warriors, but fell out of favor with Warriors coach Don Nelson last season.

There are a number of vets such as Marc Jackson (the former Net, not the former Knick), Kelvin Cato, Earl Boykins, DeMarr Johnson, Ruben Patterson, and James Posey, who should all also get a long look from Ainge.

Instead, Ainge is acting as though he hasn’t scouted an NBA game in several years. Miller’s game was in serious free fall when he hung up his sneakers. Look at what has happened to that deadeye marksmanship from behind the arc, which had been Miller’s calling card. In his final season, he shot only 32.2% from way downtown. Two seasons before that, he nailed only 35.5%. At 42, he’s not being pursued for his stellar defense or slashing to the hoop. If he can’t hit the three-ball at a rate better than the league average, then he’s best left to the broadcast booth.

Ainge has made one signing since the trade, adding journeyman center Scott Pollard. Pollard was last a useful player when he was 27, helping the Los Angeles Kings to game 7 of the Western Conference Finals in 2002. Now he’s 32 and couldn’t get off the pine for the Cleveland Cavaliers last season.

Ainge seems to have forgotten that reserves play two vital functions in the NBA: They give you 12 to 15 minutes of nightly burn so that you can rest your regulars, and they fill in when the starters are hurt. With a team built around a trio of players on the wrong side of 30, that second function is vital to remember. Ainge needs to cast a much wider net for his role players, or his new-look Celtics will watch helplessly as the Toronto Raptors, the Chicago Bulls, and other deeper Eastern Conference teams go further into the playoffs.

* * *

Remember the Memphis Grizzlies? It was only a year ago that they won 49 games. But they fell so hard to last season’s abysmal record of 22–60 that it was easy to think they were always bad. With the acquisition of Spanish guard Juan Carlos Navarro, the Griz are poised to complete a dramatic turnaround.

Navarro, a close friend and national teammate of Grizzlies center Pau Gasol, was acquired from the Washington Wizards for a conditional first-round draft pick. The New York Sun’s John Hollinger translated Navarro’s performance from the Euroleague last season into NBA performance, and the results should make Griz fans smile: 18.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists per 40 minutes, and a shooting percentage of 43.7. Pair him with rookie Mike Conley in the backcourt with some combination of Hakim Warwick, Rudy Gay, and Mike Miller up front, and Gasol and Darko Milicic in the middle, and new coach Marc Iavaroni has a rotation that could bounce right back into the playoffs and finally win a postseason game or two.