Shaquille O'Neal has never been known for being modest, but he appears to be content with a supporting role in Boston.

O'Neal signed a two-year, $2.8 million contract with the Celtics this month.

"I'm much older now," he said. "This team is good with or without me. Sometimes, in order to win, you have to sacrifice. I don't mind sacrificing. At the end of the day, it?s all about winning."

"I'm going to do what I'm told to do. Whatever they need me to do. I'm not in a position to cause trouble or cause a ruckus. The reason why younger in my career I acted a fool is because they made me the CEO. If I'm the CEO and I'm getting all the blame, we're going to start doing it my way."

The Celtics have a roster spot open and are currently looking for a shooter, meaning Rudy Fernandez could be an option.

"We're just continuing to explore available players and trade possibilities and see what sort of options are there," said Danny Ainge. "There are some trade discussions that we're having. I don't know the likelihood of those happening, but we?ll continue to not rush into something unless it's something that we're really excited about."

Another option for the Celtics could be free agent veteran Larry Hughes.

Shaquille O'Neal assured Celtics coach Doc Rivers prior to his signing that he'd be fine with a possible bench role.

"I'm going to do whatever they ask me to do," O'Neal said when he signed.

Rivers said in a radio interview with ESPN 950 in Washington that the legendary center plans to be flexible.

"Absolutely coach," O'Neal told Rivers when asked if he'd be OK with a reserve role.

O'Neal went on to agree that he'd even be fine with playing just 10-15 minutes per game.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers has heaped considerable praise upon Rajon Rondo.

Rivers says that Rondo is the "smartest player" he's coached. That's saying something when you consider he's coached Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett.

"He's the smartest player that I've ever coached. His basketball IQ is off the charts," Rivers told Comcast Sportsnet.

Paul Pierce wants the Celtics to find a new home for training camp.

The team has held camp at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island for years. The campus is 90 minutes from Boston.

With a number of new additions to the roster, Pierce thinks a change of scenery would do the team some good.

"I think it would be good for this group to get away," said Pierce. "I'm really getting tired of Newport. Really, I want to go somewhere else.

"Newport is good, but I want to go somewhere else. It would be good to get away with this type of group, when you have Jermaine and Shaq.

"When you got new guys and these types of personalities, I think it's good for all of us to get out, be at a dinner table ? me, Shaq, Kevin [Garnett], Ray [Allen], Jermaine. I think it would be good for that relationship, building that chemistry. We get away and go somewhere, that's something we'll definitely do."

If anyone has experience playing with three superstars it's Eddie House.

House played for the Celtics when they added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to play alongside Paul Pierce. Boston won the NBA championship the first season following the additions.

He is now a member of a Heat, who signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh to play with Dwyane Wade this summer.

"I compare it to the year I went to Boston when the Big 3 got together in 2007," House said. "But this is going to be even bigger. This is going to be Boston on steroids."

The Celtics aren't expecting Kendrick Perkins to return until February or March, but he has set a goal of January for his return to the court.

Perkins tore his right ACL in the first quarter of Game 6 of this year's NBA Finals against the Lakers.

"I've been doing a lot of rehabbing, make sure I get my work in every day," he said. "Make sure I keep my weight down, just taking it one day at a time.

"The swelling in my leg went down so everything's coming around pretty quickly. Right now I can't work out like I want to, I can't hoop. But everything else is doing great."

Perkins added that he doesn't feel threatened by the additions of Shaquille O'Neal and Jermaine O'Neal this summer.

"I don't see it threatening me at all," he said. "I got to work hard. I know I got to fight to get back to where I was. It's no problem with me. Hard work is not a problem."

Paul Pierce, a career-long members of the Celtics, says he wants to finish his professional basketball career playing in Europe.

Pierce signed a contract in July that will keep him in Boston for three more seasons, with an option for a fourth year.

"As far as retiring from the NBA, I think I will be done after this contract because eventually I want to go overseas and play and live for a couple of years," Pierce told CSNNE.com.

"That's why this is a big contract for me, knowing I'm going to retire a Boston Celtic. I want to go to either Italy or Greece for a year. I think I want to be able to bring my family over to just kind of share a different experience overseas for a couple of years, before I settle into retirement."

Paul Pierce is confident in Boston's standing heading into the 2010-11 season.

"I think we're there at the top," he said. "I think we're one of the top four or five teams in all of basketball.

"We can use another wing man off the bench after losing Tony Allen (to Memphis in free agency). But, for the most part, I love our team. I think we're better now than we were in June."

Pierce said Tuesday that he lobbied Celtics president Danny Ainge to sign center Shaquille O'Neal.

"I pushed," he said. "You looked around and you looked at the free agents. I saw Shaq was the best available at the time."

Pierce doesn't buy into the notion that the O'Neal signing is simply adding another over-the-hill player to an already aging roster.

"When you put him in our group of guys, he's going to have a different role now," Pierce said. "The role he had in Cleveland, he had to be the second guy or the third guy at times. With us, it's not going to have to be that way. We have a number of guys we can play through. There's not a lot of pressure for Shaq to go out and get the 15 or 20 (points) a night like he had to in Cleveland for them to be successful.

"He's going to have great nights playing along with me, Kevin (Garnett), Ray and (Rajon) Rondo because we're all unselfish. If he puts together the season he had with Cleveland for us, we'll probably be the best team in the league. I think he fits the system we play a lot better than he did in Cleveland."

Celtics reserve big man Glen Davis claims he'll be a different, more mature player this coming season.

"This is the year of finally hitting that line of maturity, of finally becoming that player that I knew I could be," Davis said.

"Throughout my career, my three years being here, it's been up and down. When I play, you've seen glimpses, like, 'Wow, this guy could start. Or come off the bench.' Glimpses up and down. But this is the year of Glen becoming that whole player that 10 years down the road, eight years down the road, will hopefully be an All-Star."

Davis is entering the final year of his two-year, $6.5 million contract.

"When you think about contract, that's when you really don't focus on what you need to focus on," he said. "I'm just trying to focus on helping my team get back to the Finals and winning it."