by By STEVE BULPETT , The Boston Herald

Lue, as it turned out, made the team anyway. Yesterday, he was introduced as the C's director of Basketball development, an assistant coach of sorts whose role will become more clear as he continues to work with the club.

At 32, Lue clearly can still play, but he said he has no problem retiring from active duty. That obviously could change if the Celts have injury problems in their backcourt or find, as they have the past two seasons, that they want to add a veteran who's a traditional point guard.

``If I wasn't going to play here, then I wasn't going to play,'' Lue said. ``I've been sitting on this (offer from the Celtics ) for about a month. I was going to just take some time off, but once you get away it can be hard to get back in. This is a great situation for me.'' In addition to the fact the Celts are title contenders and will give Lue good exposure as he works into the coaching profession, he is a very close friend of Kevin Garnett and helped convince the All-Star forward to come to the C's when he was wavering two years ago. Coach Doc Rivers, meanwhile, likes having Lue around.

``I just asked him if he wanted to coach,'' Rivers said. ``He said he would love the opportunity. I think it's going to be terrific for him.

``There are a lot of players who you can just tell from the way they play they can become coaches. I told our players that I'd bring them all in as assistant coaches after they played. Certain guys just love the game and are very smart.''

Making the cut

The Celtics won't have any trouble figuring which 12 players to dress for the season opener in Cleveland on Tuesday.

Guard/forward Bill Walker (right knee surgery) is out, and neither forward Brian Scalabrine nor guard Tony Allen, with right ankle injuries of varying degrees, likely will play.

``I don't know how bad (it is),'' Rivers said of Scalabrine's ankle. ``I don't expect him to be ready for opening night, but you never know that. Tony is a definite no.''

Scalabrine was walking gingerly after receiving treatment yesterday on the ankle he sprained Tuesday night in New York.

Allen has been in and out during the preseason following ankle surgery, but he didn't make either of the last two preseason trips. Yesterday, he was seen walking with an immobilization boot.

Numbers gain

Forward Michael Sweetney, waived by the C's on Thursday, was a victim of numbers.

The first was his weight, which got him out of the league and had him looking to hook on with a club. He played well here, but his chances were killed by the fact the Celts already have the maximum number of players with guaranteed contracts.

``I don't know,'' Rivers said when asked if Sweetney might be seen here again. ``Right now we have 15 players. I do think he's an NBA player. I have no doubt about that.''

As for whether the Celts considered moving another player to make room for Sweetney, Rivers said, ``No, I mean, we liked him enough that we would have loved to keep him, but we've got 15 guys. The numbers didn't help him at all.''

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