Our friends at ESPN Insider suggested Tuesday that the Celtics, as a team, could benefit from a shortened season. Today, Insider's Tom Haberstroh pegs Kevin Garnett as one of five players ( in particular that could be aided by a lockout-shortened slate:

INSIDER: SHORT SEASON COULD AID FIVE  

No active big man has logged more minutes on an NBA floor than this guy (only Jason Kidd has more). In fact, the second minute that Garnett plays next season will be No. 48,000 for his career, if we count both regular season and the playoffs. At 35, "The Kid" could use an extended vacation, and with the owners and players currently refusing to budge, he might very well get one.

He's less injury-prone than most think. If you could guarantee Boston fans before last season that Garnett would play more than 70 games in 2010-11, they'd take that in a second. Garnett played 71 games, not to mention another nine in the playoffs. Heck, Celtics fans might have even broken the bank for more than 60 games from their All-Star big man.

He looked physically overmatched against Chris Bosh (never a good sign) at the tail end of the Eastern Conference semifinals, but for a guy who's got that many miles on his odometer, it's hard to expect anything more.

The other players listed: Portland's Greg Oden, Chicago's Derrick Rose, free agent David West and old friend Kendrick Perkins. Writes Habestroh: "Although he's not known for posting big numbers, Perkins' 6.1 playoff PER was a far cry from his 16.4 rating during the Celtics' title campaign in 2008-09. If the lockout persists, he'll get plenty of time to get back to his less grumpy-looking self."