One turn at the top of the NBA wasn't going to make Kevin Garnett forget all those years on the bottom.

And he can't believe that people would think otherwise.

So when Garnett heard the theory that he, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen couldn't possibly be as driven now as they were before finally winning their first NBA title, he wondered if the skeptics had been paying attention all along.

"Hmm, they don't know us that well then, huh?" Garnett said recently.

With that, Garnett made it clear: Boston's Big Three, and the rest of their teammates, aren't satisfied with one championship. Anybody who wants to take the title from the Celtics won't get it without a fight. Plenty of teams are ready to start one.

MVP Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers have center Andrew Bynum back to join Pau Gasol in their frontcourt, hoping that will make the difference if they get another shot at the Celtics.

It might not even be good enough to survive the West.

The New Orleans Hornets followed their breakthrough season by signing valuable reserve James Posey away from the Celtics. San Antonio, Utah, Dallas and Phoenix are all still right there in the power conference, where a team going 15 games above .500 in 2007-08 couldn't even get a seat at the postseason table.

Even Tracy McGrady, who has never won a playoff series, is thinking big now that Ron Artest has joined he and Yao Ming in Houston.

"This is the first time I've felt good about going into the season that something really special is going to come out of this season, if we all just put it together and just understand our roles," McGrady said.

Artest's trade from Sacramento could be the most significant change of address among players. Elton Brand (Philadelphia) and Baron Davis (Clippers) are among the other big names who switched cities, as did Kevin Durant — though he did it without changing franchises. His former Seattle SuperSonics are now the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In the coaching ranks, Mike D'Antoni brings offensive flair to New York, Scott Skiles will try to instill defensive discipline in Milwaukee, and Larry Brown seeks to lift a struggling franchise in Charlotte.

Terry Porter (Phoenix), Rick Carlisle (Dallas) and Michael Curry (Detroit) inherit teams near the top, while Erik Spoelstra (Miami) and Vinny Del Negro (Chicago) hope to pick up clubs that fell toward the bottom.

The season begins Oct. 28 in Boston. The opening game is a rematch of a thrilling Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Celtics won a Game 7 that featured a memorable duel between Pierce and LeBron James, then beat Detroit to reach the NBA finals, where they knocked off the Lakers in six games.

That capped a record-setting, one-year turnaround for the Celtics, who won only 24 games in 2006-07. They then traded for Allen on draft night, acquired Garnett later in the summer, and rode the three ringless All-Stars to a 66-16 mark.

None of the three had previously reached the finals. Garnett was rarely even close in Minnesota, advancing past the first round only once after entering the NBA as the No. 5 pick in the 1995 draft. Even after he collects his jewelry on opening night, he'll be thinking about those disappointments, guaranteeing his trademark intensity won't drop.

What's motivating me is now saying, 'Wow, I won this and now I've got to count this group of teams that want to take this from us,' " Garnett says. "And that's even more motivating than not winning in the first round and getting kicked out."

The Cavaliers hope they gave James the help he needs to get past the Celtics with the acquisition of point guard Mo Williams from Milwaukee. The team on the rise in the East could be Philadelphia, which addressed the biggest hole on last season's athletic playoff squad by signing power forward Brand away from the Clippers.

"In playoff basketball you can't just run and gun and get it up and down the court," Brand said. "So you're going to have to slow it down and have some interior presence, and that's what I provide."

Still, the Celtics figure to have an easier path back to the finals than the Lakers, who have to endure a conference where Denver went 50-32 last season and managed only the No. 8 seed. The West could be even tougher this time, with Portland adding a potential dominant center in 2007 No. 1 pick Oden, who had to sit out last season after knee surgery.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson and the Hornets' Byron Scott both said the Blazers could be 10 wins better this season, which would put them into the 50-win category.




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