This Boston Celtics team has proven time and time again that they’re not capable of competing for a championship with the way they’re currently constructed.
Truthfully, they’re not even built to make it out of the second round.
And they seem so utterly disinterested in turning things around that they don’t deserve for Danny Ainge to go out and swing a big move.
The latest example came in Friday night’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, who sit 12th in the Western Conference. Down 55-45 at the half, the Celtics put up an admirable, 36-point effort in the third quarter to claw back into it, only to score 15 points in the fourth quarter and lose 107-96.
A hallmark of Celtics teams for a while now has been their resolve, especially in the second half. They’ve lacked that for most of this season, which is perhaps the most problematic aspect of this whole tire fire of a campaign.
So when you keep in mind where this sub-.500 team with holes across the roster is, does it make any sense at all for the president of basketball operations to go out and make a deal? The trade deadline is Thursday, but we already know who this team is: A group not worth investing in. Even if the Celtics won every game between now and the deadline, using that as the impetus for making a big move would simply be reactionary — and, frankly, irresponsible — by Ainge.
The C’s are better off just coasting (they’ve gotten good at that) through the rest of this year, hoping they can miraculously come together in the playoffs (if they even make it) enough to not get their doors totally blown off by the Philadelphia 76ers. At least, and we’re not being sarcastic, their leadership group will be accountable about it.
And the overarching problem in all of this is the Celtics have basically no one desirable enough to offer another team in a trade that they would reasonably part with.
Moving on from Robert Williams? No thanks, he’s one of the only bright lights this season.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown obviously are the untouchables, and what team would even want Kemba Walker right now?
Semi Ojeleye on an expiring contract? Good luck getting a team to take him.
Jeff Teague obviously hasn’t made himself valuable enough this season for a team to target him as a rental. That might not be the case for Tristan Thompson, however.
Can’t imagine anyone is blowing up Ainge’s phone for Carsen Edwards, Grant Williams or any of the Celtics’ other young bench players. Perhaps Marcus Smart would be appealing to an actual contender, so long as their coach is willing to tell him that they will drag him off the court if he takes a perimeter shot in the fourth quarter.
And given the Celtics might have a mid-first-round pick, the last thing they should be doing is trading draft capital — even though Ainge’s history in the draft is appalling.
Put it all together and you have a team with basically no tradeable assets, seriously might not make the postseason and clearly does not care to change their lot in life. It would be absurd for Ainge to look at that and say, “Yeah, let me go ahead and overextend myself for Harrison Barnes or Bradley Beal or Nikola Vucevic.”
Ironically, the Celtics debuted their “Earned Edition” uniforms Friday night. The only thing this team has earned is for everyone to give up on them the way they’ve so clearly given up on themselves.
Go back to the drawing board this offseason (they’ll have plenty of time to do so since an early playoff exit is all but certain) and try again next year.
