The Boston Celtics made a furious push to move up in last week’s NBA draft, even shopping their top pick in last year’s draft, point guard Marcus Smart.
That was the story at the time, at least.
But while nobody in the Celtics’ front office will deny trying to trade up — president of basketball operations Danny Ainge admitted as much immediately after the draft — “several team sources” told The Boston Globe that Smart was not involved in any draft night trade proposals.
“If we’d thrown in Marcus Smart, we probably could have done some deals,” one source told the Globe. “But we probably would have taken a step back.”
Ainge ultimately determined the price to move up was “way too high” and chose to use all four of the team’s picks, selecting Terry Rozier at No. 16, R.J. Hunter at No. 28, Jordan Mickey at No. 33 and Marcus Thornton at No. 45.
Thumbnail photo via Brad Rempel/USA TODAY Sports Images
