It’s All-Star Friday, the most bizarre day of planned events on the NBA calendar.  The media will mob Houston, Kevin Hart will do Kevin Hart things in the Celebrity Game and Kyrie Irving will take at least five uncontested threes en route to another possible MVP performance in the Rising Stars Challenge.

With this lull in meaningful basketball it’s time to look back at how the Celtics have performed thus far.  The team sits at 28-24 despite losing All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo, promising rookie Jared Sullinger and the Brazilian Blur (Leandro Barbosa) in a matter of weeks.  Boston shrugged off the attrition, posting an 8-1 record in its last nine games before the break.

Individually the Celtics are tough to grade.  Doc Rivers deserves an A for coaching with a rug under him that somebody keeps yanking.  It’s a bipolar team; identities changed once Rondo exited with a partially torn right ACL.  That’s why some of these report cards will be split.  Think of it as nine-week grading periods as opposed to semesters.  The players most affected by Rondo’s injury will receive two grades: with Rondo (WR) and post-Rondo (PR).

Jason Terry:

WR: C

PR: B

In his last 10 games Jet is shooting 52 percent from the field; the Celtics are 8-2 in those games.  For the season he is just shooting 44 percent, and in Boston’s 24 losses Terry shoots under 39 percent.  With Rondo on the floor Terry’s game was congested.  Without him he gets more minutes and more shots to heat up.  Against the Nuggets he played 42 minutes, his second-highest total of the season, and shot the ball 22 times.  The result was five 3-pointers and 26 total points.  That isn’t LeBron efficiency (which is unattainable by anyone not named Kevin Durant) but it is what the Celtics signed him for.  He was billed as instant offense and is showing that without Rondo on the floor.

Paul Pierce:

WR: B

PR: B+

The captain might be an All-Star if the Celtics had a better record, though he likely would take it easy during the break anyway to deal with the pinched nerve in his neck.  19.5 points per 36 minutes and an 18.2 PER both rank higher than the Pacer’s Paul George.  The difference in grade without Rondo (and Sullinger, really) stems from an increased rebounding role and some clutch step-back threes.

Rajon Rondo:

A-

The team was struggling with him, but Rondo still had a stellar season.  He came through with career highs in points per game, rebounds per game and free throw percentage.

Jared Sullinger:

B

In his four double-digit scoring performances during the month of January Sullinger shot 62 percent from the floor.  He grabbed less than 10 rebounds in just one of those games.  Before his inevitable back problem Sullinger became one of the most efficient players on the team.

Kevin Garnett:

A-

He doesn’t slow down.  Garnett’s numbers in the 2012-2013 season are strikingly consistent with every year he has played in Boston.  Points, rebounds and field goal percentage per 36 minutes are all almost directly on par with his five other All-Star caliber seasons with the Celtics.  He looked winded against the Nuggets in three overtimes, but so did everyone else on the floor.  Moving along.

Jeff Green:

WR: C+

PR : B

Green is scoring more without Rondo on the floor.  In his past 10 games he averaged 14.1 points per game, about four points per game higher than his season average.

Avery Bradley: B

Leandro Barbosa: WR: C- PR: B-

Courtney Lee: B-

The three of them (and Terry, but to a lesser extent) are burdened with the task of filling in for Rondo.  Bradley gives the team better on-ball defense than Rondo could.  He endlessly frustrated Jamal Crawford, one of the best scorers off the bench in the league, in the Celtics win over the Clippers a couple weeks back.

The Brazilian Blur was finally scoring on the fast break before his season-ending injury.  The sample size is not large: Barbosa played only a little more than 10 minutes per game with Rondo around.  In the month of February his playing time per game doubled.

Lee has gotten 25 minutes and nine points per game pretty much all season.

Brandon Bass:

C+

Bass was the high scorer in an atrocious “basketball” game against the Bulls Wednesday night.  But his points and rebounds per game are below his career average.  So are his field goal and free throw percentages.

Chris Wilcox: C

Jason Collins: C-

Wilcox’s PER is the fourth highest on the team, but aside from a couple bright quarters that’s all he can lay claim to.  Collins is shooting only 36 percent from the field this season.  Not good when all of your shots come within five feet of the rim. 

Fab Melo:

C-

No way to tell so far.

Darko Milicic

D-

This one was pretty easy.  I can’t bring myself to fail an NBA player, so the D is for Darko.