Kevin Garnett has long been one of the more fascinating characters in a locker room filled with intriguing characters. In his own way, he’s as inscrutable as Rajon Rondo, but there are important differences.

The word “mania” is often attached to Garnett’s name. As in, a tendency toward maniacally competitive behavior that leads to both inspired performances and unfortunate on-court incidents (the latter has been notably less this season). Or, as a player who is so maniacally committed to the idea of team that Keyon Dooling called him, “The greatest teammate in the history of the NBA.”

Here’s more of what Dooling said:

“You’ve never seen a superstar teammate who truly loves and cares about every guy on the team. It’s such a pleasure. I’m glad that we internally get to see that. I know he’s a little bit tough and hard on the exterior. Life has toughened him and made him that way. That’s a great trait as well because it translates on the basketball court.”

Garnett is not as frenetic as Rondo, whose moods and play seem to vary with whatever happens to be motivating him at the time. Make no mistake: Rondo is competitive as hell, but he seems to take it up a notch when pressured by either a meaningful matchup or some external factor like the trade deadline or an All-Star snub.

Conversely, he’s turned it down at times as well, leading to some truly ugly performances, although not as often as people make it seem. The rate of his historic holy &*%$! moments is slightly higher than that of his occasional walkabouts on a Saturday night in the middle of the winter. In between, Rondo often has good to great nights and sometimes average nights, much like everyone else in the NBA.

Garnett's mania is motivated by something different. It’s order that he craves on the basketball court. He seeks structure, repetition and familiarity. So, his reaction to a question about playing center was interesting in that it revealed both sides of his basketball identity.

“Preference wise, I don’t like it, to be honest with you,” Garnett said. “I’m a four. It’s what it is. I’ll do whatever what this team needs me to be, other than a cheerleader with the pom poms and some short shorts. Other than that whatever this team needs me to be, I’ll be it.”

Of course he’ll do it because that’s what he does, but Garnett’s issues with the position are aesthetic in nature. He has long resisted the urge to move closer to the basket. Long ago he decided that he didn’t want to be Hakeem Olajuwon and settled on being himself, one of the best defenders the league has ever seen and a talented offensive player who would rather be known for his defense.

As he joked the other night with reporters, “There’s only one Garnett.” (The context is too odd to even try to explain. This happens a lot in post-game Garnett interviews).

Here’s what else he had to say about the switch:

“I have a lot of confidence in myself when it comes to playing basketball and positions are just numbers to me,” Garnett said. “But if it comes to preference, I enjoy the four. There’s a lot more versatility in the four. The five, you’re kind of stuck in mud and cement and things are as written. Not a lot of variation in the five position, but this is what it is and I’m enjoying it and adapting and doing whatever I can to give my team an edge.”

And he should be. Garnett’s offensive production spikes when he’s at the five, according to 82games.com. He goes from dominant to merely good defensively, but the Celtics will take that tradeoff considering scoring points has been by far their biggest problem this season.

“He’s so smart defensively,” coach Doc Rivers said. “They will be bigger but they have to be awfully smart to score on him. He’s so crafty. At four there’s a lot of fours as quick or quicker, now all of a sudden he’s the fastest five. When he pops and rolls that’s a five trying to get back to him and they can’t catch him.” 

Over the last five games at center, Garnett has scored 104 points and grabbed 51 rebounds. He’s recorded double-doubles in three straight and seven of his last eight games and the Celtics have won four straight with him starting next to Brandon Bass.

It’s part of an overall change in the team’s direction that began after they almost came back against Oklahoma City in the final game before the All-Star break. Rivers decided that it was time go to a traditional nine-man rotation and play up-tempo. He’s also using smaller lineups – a testament to Mickael Pietrus’ versatility as a defender – that can be anchored because Garnett is the last line of defense.

This is a notable switch because the Celtics have long relied on beating their opponents into submission on the defensive end. It’s a realization that the defense can no longer win games by itself if the offense continues to sputter.

“I’m an old soul when it comes to that system. It’s a system that works,” Garnett said. “We’ve sort of shifted up a little bit here, being a little more athletic and trying to get out and run more. It’s all good with me. As long as it equals wins at the end of the day I have no problem with any of it.”

Yes, this is all part of the transition to making it "Rondo's team," but it's also about making the best use of Garnett and moving him to center was truly the last card left to be played with this group. It’s resulted in four straight wins and a renewed sense of optimism for a team that is suddenly two games behind Philadelphia (and only one in the loss column) for first place in the Atlantic Division. While the future continues to take center stage, they might as well try to maximize the present.