The answer to that one would probably be encouraging. Daniels got the hard cast off the thumb last Thursday and was at Tuesday’s Celtics practice doing some dribbling and taking passes. He is talking about trying to beat the All-Star break target for his return from surgery.

While Rivers will be careful not to rush him back, the toll his absence has taken has proved what a big acquisition he was when the Celtics finally brought him to Boston after a month of sign-and-trade wrangling with the Pacers.

“It’s amazing,” Rivers said, “when we signed him how many other coaches called me and said; ‘How did you get that guy? How did you pull that off?’”

Rivers said during training camp that the Celtics entered the summer with two priorities. One was Rasheed Wallace. The other was a ball-handling wing player - with Grant Hill and Daniels as the two legitimate options.

The Celtics got Daniels. Only they’ve had him for just 19 out of 43 games this season.

As the minutes have piled up on Allen and Pierce – the both topped the 40-mark again last night in Orlando – it has become clear how much they need him back.

“Personally, as much as I missed Kevin, I miss Marquis a lot because he and I play the same position,” Allen said. “I don’t mind playing. I love being out on the floor. But it gives us different looks out there when he’s there. Eddie (House) is getting better looks because he’s not bringing ball up for that second unit. It gives us two shooters on the second unit, and one off the ball, when Marquis is posting up.

“As a team, it makes us better, and I think we stay fresher because Paul and I are playing less minutes.”

Granted, Daniels did not exactly set the parquet ablaze during the first six weeks of the season. He averaged just 5.7 points and 2.0 rebounds in 20 minutes a game. He shot just 57.1 percent from the foul line.

But Rivers cautioned that his impact cannot be measured with numbers alone.

“An average fan would not understand what he does,” said the coach, who compared Daniels to James Posey and Shane Battier. “He is an intangible guy. We have star guys. You need intangible guys around them.

“He’s also a great teammate. That’s what he wants to be. He’s not trying to be a star. He is trying to dominant his role. You can see early that he really accepts that. There’s a lot of guys who understood who they were early in their careers and have made themselves irreplaceable on your team.”

Over the past seven weeks, the Celtics have found that out all too well.

(Scott Souza is a staff writer for the MetroWest Daily News. His coverage can be found at www.metrowestdailynews.com. For updates and analysis, check out the “Courtside View” blog at blogs.wickedlocal.com/Celtics/.)