Sean Deveney

To be sure, adding two players, both qualified NBA veterans who figure to play relatively small roles, is not something that will hurt the Celtics. But just how much Boston figures to benefit from the signing of center Mikki Moore, released by the Kings last week, and the proposed signing of guard Stephon Marbury is a matter of debate.

Obviously, the Celtics' weak point this season has been the bench. Having lost James Posey to New Orleans' hefty contract offer and P.J. Brown to the comforts of retirement, the Celtics returned a bench that made no significant offseason additions. The approach was obvious: Hope that Tony Allen, finally healthy, could fill Posey's sixth-man role, and hope that Glen Davis could hone the kind of high-post jump shooting — which proved crucial to the team's championship run — that Brown provided.

It hasn't happened. Davis is shooting 41.6 percent from the floor. Allen showed some progress, but he might be finished for the season after thumb surgery. Heading down the stretch run, the Celtics needed to do something, and they're getting the best two players to hit the waiver wire. (Of course, they're also the first players to hit the post-trade deadline wire.)

But let's keep in mind what the Celtics are getting. Start with Moore. He is 33. He has never averaged double figures. He has played for Detroit, Atlanta, New Jersey, Utah, Seattle, the Clippers, Boston and Sacramento. He averaged a respectable 8.5 points and 6.0 rebounds last year, but saw his minutes slashed in the Kings' youth movement this year. He is not the proven-but-aging commodity that Brown was — far from it.

"Mikki Moore does not fit well with them at all," says one East scout. "One of their problems is that Big Baby [Davis] can't hit a shot outside of five feet. Moore does not help with that. His shot is awful. He can't pass, he can't put the ball on the floor. He provides energy, but not much else."

Marbury is a different story. He's a guy who, unquestionably, can score and handle the ball. That fills a very big gap on the Boston bench, where Eddie House is more of a two-guard — and a streaky one at that — than a point man.

"If he is willing to come in and play 15 minutes and just do what they want from their point guard — penetrate and kick, take threes — then he'd be a good fit," says another scout. "I am sure he will be willing to fill his role. If it was Stephon Marbury from two years ago, this would be a great guy for them."

There's your swatch of doubt with Marbury. It's not so much his past run-ins with coaches and management that figure to be a problem in Boston — a championship-level team has a way of suppressing knuckleheaded characteristics (see Dennis Rodman in Chicago and Rasheed Wallace in Detroit). The problem is one of inactivity. The guy has not played since Jan. 11, 2008, more than 400 days without being in a game. He is 32, and whether he can bounce out of that period of dormancy and be an effective player is at least dubious.

Still, you can't blame the Celtics for rolling the dice here. There's no harm in adding players and extending the depth. The NBA championship could come down to how the benches of the four major contenders — San Antonio, the Lakers, Boston and Cleveland — play in a seven-game series. Before this week, the Celtics' bench was clearly the weakest of the four. But whether these two moves will significantly change that is doubtful.

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