Paul Pierce played point guard in high school. Jiri Welsch has been lauded as being able to play either guard position. Marcus Banks is one of the fastest point guards in the league. Delonte West is making the same transition Jameer Nelson did last year. But who, after Gary Payton, is really Boston's second-best point guard? Could it be Ricky Davis?

Gary Payton will play for Boston this year unless an interesting offer surfaces the week training camp opens the week of October 4, with Houston being perhaps the most interesting. Payton, Tracy McGrady, Jim Jackson, Yao Ming, and Dikembe Mutombo spells a championship team. If Payton is shipped out, who among the Celtics could step up and be the point guard?

If Payton stays and plays, then who could relieve him for a rest?

In the future, it will be Marcus Banks and Delonte West. Perhaps only Allen Iverson is quicker or faster than Banks, but it is up to Banks to prove he will be more like Iverson and less like Robert Pack. When I saw Pack play on the West coast about ten years ago, he was the fastest player I had ever seen. He had more control than I have seen Banks show so far but the speed is similar. They both can get to any spot they choose on the floor and no one can stop them. The problem is what to do when they get there.

West is pulling a Jameer Nelson sort of switch from off-guard to point guard except he is doing it under the bright lights of professional ball and not in the safer realm of college ball. There is no doubt he will be successful at the transition and certainly in a year, or perhaps sooner, he will be as valuable as a lottery pick.

In the meantime, who is the best ballhandler, the best passer, and the best defender of the point? Who can get the ball to the right people at the right time, or, if left unguarded, bury the long jumper or drive into the lane for a dish to an open teammate or a dunk in traffic?

Ricky Davis.

He's been called a variety of names and loaded down with a bevy of negative character traits but if he has proven anything it is that the slate has been wiped essentially clean since his arrival into Boston. He does love to have the ball in his hands and he can pout when he doesn't touch it, but when he does, he is not a selfish player by any means. In Cleveland, he was averaging more than five assists a game. In Boston, that figure dropped to about 2.6, and only part of the reason was because of fewer minutes.

Davis can play the point. He can make the same transition that Jalen Rose did, moving from small forward to point guard. It is the same transition that is in the long term plans for Jiri Welsch. Davis loves feeding open teammates. He loves scoring, to be sure, and he loves being flashy whenever possible, but if the choice is between a win and a flashy move, he will go for the win every time.

Who better to guide this transition than a former shooting guard who made the transition to point guard himself in the NBA? Doc Rivers could mold even Mark Blount into a serviceable point guard. It is merely a question of drawing up and practicing plays so that all teammates know where they should be and when, and why.

The why is the most important so that the Celtics can recover from broken plays. If they know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and the logic behind the plays, they can recover as a unit before the defense has a chance to adjust.

Few people in the NBA have better handles than Davis. Few even share his court vision. He has no qualms about looking to pass the ball into the big guys or especially to his buddy Pierce for an open look or a better angle.

It might be worth the experiment.