Danny Ainge on Celtics’ quiet trade deadline: ‘I’m not disappointed’
Boston stood pat for the second straight year at the trade deadline.
There may not have been a team in the league connected to more trumors than the Boston Celtics leading up to the trade deadline on Thursday. When the dust settled, the C’s had elected to stand pat with their current roster, a decision that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge did not have any regrets about.
“I’m not disappointed,” Ainge said. “Not at all. I can’t wait to get back out on the road and start scouting and getting ready for the draft and continue to watch the NBA and get ready for the playoffs. I’m very optimistic and very excited about the rest of the year.”
The Celtics had given Ainge a lot to be excited about before the All-Star break, winning 24 of 31 games to rise to the second seed in the Eastern Conference. That success is certainly encouraging but does not make them anything but heavy underdogs against the likes of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the postseason.
That reality led to Boston reportedly targeting All-Stars such as Paul George and Jimmy Butler to try to close the talent gap. Once they fell short on those fronts, Ainge elected to maintain all of his team’s assets for potential moves in the offseason and beyond.
“All the things we pulled away from or might have been tempted to do, we didn’t do,” Ainge said. “So patience, maybe, but we like what we have. We like our position and we like our future a lot.”
That future will involve two first-round picks from the Brooklyn Nets for the next two seasons, which includes a right to swap picks in 2017 and an unprotected pick in 2018.
“A lot of teams do a lot and cost their franchises a lot of money by trying to get picks like that,” Ainge explained. “We have very good fortune right now. The ball has bounced our way, and we need to make the most of that.”
