Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge reportedly wants to make a deal.
Arguably no NBA team has been linked to more rumors than the C’s over the past few seasons with their collection of tradeable assets, including a swap with the Brooklyn Nets for their first-round pick this season, and their 2018 first-round pick. But while they have made some deals for players like Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder, the fireworks promised to fans still haven’t gone off.
But will that finally change before the 2017 trade deadline?
We’ll have to wait and see, but, in the meantime, The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski said Wednesday on his “The Vertical Podcast” that the Celtics are “sort of back where they always are,” and that Ainge “wants to do a deal.”
“Danny’s wanted to strike and, like everybody else, get that big star, get that big player,” Wojnarowski said, as transcribed by CSNNE.com. “(Al) Horford was a big play and a great get in free agency. They can still keep their eye on Gordon Hayward from Utah who’s an unrestricted free agent this summer who played for Brad Stevens at Butler. It think there’s still strong hope in Utah that he’ll want to stay there.”
As Woj said, though, Hayward would be a potential pickup in the offseason since the exciting young Utah Jazz currently are 15-10 and in position to make the Western Conference playoffs. But if the C’s do try to make a deal, there might be one major roadblock in their way.
“Boston’s interesting in that (they have) some good young players, they have draft picks they can put in deals and they have some veterans that hold some interest in places,” Wojnarowski added. “I do wonder sometimes if Boston might overvalue some of the players they have compared to what the rest of the league sees in them. I think Marcus Smart might be starting to fall into that category. His name’s been in some talks previously, and they’ve been pretty careful about who they’d give him up for.”
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
