The rumor mill was working at full power on NBA trade deadline day, and the asset-rich Boston Celtics were at the center of all the action — until they weren’t.
The Celtics were linked to trades for Jimmy Butler or Paul George, but no deals materialized. So they’ll begin their post-All-Star break slate Friday against the Toronto Raptors with the same exact roster that’s propelled them to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Boston is feeling good about where it is, although it admittedly still has work to do to become a championship contender.
“We’re very comfortable with what happened,” Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck said Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Felger & Mazz,” as transcribed by CSNNE.com. “We offered a lot for a couple of guys, and we offered all that we were going to offer and it just wasn’t going to happen. Those guys weren’t going to be traded and they weren’t.
“… We figure we’re probably two guys away from being a really, really good team; probably two significant guys away, and if we put all the chips in yesterday on one guy, we’re getting rid of draft pick — or picks — and we’re getting rid of free agency this summer, so it’s sort of like one step forward, two steps back. It just didn’t make sense.”
As for that future, All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas figures to play a huge role in it one way or another, but his current team-friendly contract expires after the 2017-18 season. So a decision soon will have to be made, as he’s already earned a very nice raise from someone in the league.
But it doesn’t appear that’ll deter the team from selecting one of the highly touted guards at the top of the 2017 NBA Draft with its first-round pick swap with the Brooklyn Nets.
“Especially if it’s a very high pick in the draft, you’ve got to draft the best player,” Grousbeck said. “You probably wouldn’t draft for fit as much as just you see if there’s a transformational player that you can have for 10 or 15 years there. If you see a guy like that, you’ve got to make everything else work, I would think.”
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
