Boston Celtics

Here’s why Brad Stevens doesn’t think Celtics players are worried about the trade deadline

"Most of the guys handle it pretty well."

Brad Stevens believes his players handle the trade deadline well. Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

By Tom Westerholm

2 minutes to read

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With just over a week remaining before the NBA’s trade deadline, the Boston Celtics — with a disappointing record of 20-19 and plenty of holes all over the roster — figure to be involved in plenty of discussions.

Brad Stevens, however, doesn’t think his players are overly concerned. If they are, of course, he doesn’t necessarily expect to hear about it.

“It can vary person to person,” Stevens told reporters prior to the Celtics’ game against the Cavaliers on Wednesday. “If someone wants to talk about that stuff they usually don’t talk about it with me as much. If they have a question they should go to Danny and talk to him about it.

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“Sometimes you’re cognizant of the human element that they’re all paying attention. I think these guys, maybe the rookies wouldn’t be in this mindset, but most of the guys have been through the rumor mill so often that they don’t pay it a lot of attention, or it doesn’t affect them. I don’t have a ton of those conversations, but most of the guys handle it pretty well.”

The Celtics’ rookies — Aaron Nesmith and Payton Pritchard — do figure prominently into much of the speculation. Danny Ainge isn’t likely to part ways with any of his stars, and Marcus Smart has looked indispensable to the team’s success. That leaves a heap of unproven talent that hasn’t always been up to the task of contributing to a contender.

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Bad teams with solid veteran role players, however, might be able to find a use for some of the Celtics’ youth. Some recent rumors have centered around Harrison Barnes, and the Sacramento Kings have fallen off recently. They might be interested in taking a flier on young talent if the Celtics were willing to part ways with draft capital. The Orlando Magic — who have several players that could help the Celtics — have nosedived as well.

Ainge has hinted he might be quiet at the deadline, waiting until the summer to make a move with the team’s $28.5 million traded player exception.

If he does bring in reinforcements, a two-way player — particularly a wing — might help. Stevens said the Celtics need to find one or two things on both ends of the floor at which they can excel.

“The deal is you have to be good at something,” Stevens said. “You have to be able to say: We as a team are really good on the offensive end of this, we as a team are really good at the defensive end of this. And of all the teams we’ve had, this team’s had the hardest time becoming great at one or two things on each end. So I think that’s partly because we haven’t had the full roster intact very often. Certainly, there’s a lot of other reasons for that, but that’s our task.”

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