The Celtics stood pat at the NBA trade deadline, adding only center Greg Monroe, who reportedly agreed to sign with Boston last week after being bought out by the Phoenix Suns.
But that doesn’t mean the C’s didn’t try to swing a trade. A deal simply wasn’t there to be made, according to Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge.
“There were no good deals,” Ainge told NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine after Thursday’s trade deadline. “So we stayed pat. We like our team and can’t wait.”
Simple enough.
While the Celtics could use some additional scoring off the bench, hence their pursuit of Memphis Grizzlies guard Tyreke Evans, Ainge didn’t risk disrupting the team’s current chemistry just for the sake of making a deal. Perhaps that also would explain why the Celtics didn’t trade Marcus Smart.
“Listen, there’s conversation about all of our players on the roster — trade season, offseason — and that’s just part of the business, part of the job,” Ainge told Scalabrine after denying the Celtics looked into trading Smart. “I never really thought that that was going to happen.”
The Celtics’ inactivity on the trade front stems in large from their faith in the current roster, which has Boston sitting atop the Eastern Conference with a 40-16 record. Adding Monroe, an offensively gifted big man, fills a need without forcing the Celtics to relinquish assets or risk stunting the growth of their young players by taking away playing time.
“Nothing came close,” Ainge told the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett. “It was pretty quiet.
“We had a lot of conversations leading up to (Thursday) over the last couple of weeks, but you never know for sure what’s going to happen. We’ve had deals in the past where we hadn’t talked for a month and all of a sudden it came alive an hour before the deadline.
“So you never know and you’re always prepared for something to happen at the deadline, but we didn’t go into this trade deadline feeling like we had to do something.”
There’s no sense in switching things up if you don’t have to. This isn’t the Cleveland Cavaliers we’re talking about.
