Reports from outside of Boston have made it increasingly clear that Danny Ainge and the Celtics are working the phones, even if a recent reported deal for Omer Asik fell through.
The two-team trade to bring Asik to Boston didn’t work out, but a three-team deal reportedly was in the works before Cleveland backed out. According to Bob Finnan of The News Herald, the Celtics offered Jeff Green to the Cavs to facilitate the trade. It’s not clear what pieces would have gone to Houston in such an exchange, but the Cavs weren’t interested, anyway.
“If the Cavs had been willing to sacrifice either backup center Anderson Varejao or their 2014 first-round pick, they probably could have been involved in a three-way deal that headlined disgruntled Rockets center Omer Asik this week,” Finnan writes. “They weren’t, so they didn’t.”
The Celtics’ trading block is getting crowded. We already knew Brandon Bass and Courtney Lee were there due to their inclusion in last week’s aborted Asik trade. Now, we know Green is there as well. The fact that the Cavs weren’t willing to part with Varejao, an injury-prone if productive big man when healthy, speaks volumes about Green’s value around the league.
