The Boston Celtics aren’t looking for a quick fix.
Although Danny Ainge recently acknowledged Boston’s current roster might not be good enough to contend for an NBA title, the Celtics president of basketball operations reiterated Thursday on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich” that he has no plans to mortgage the future for the sake of going all-in this season.
“We will do a deal if we think our team is going to be better,” Ainge said. “But we’re not going to do a deal that is too expensive and a Band-Aid for the here and now, or will jeopardize anything to do with our young core at this moment.”
This doesn’t mean we should rule out a significant trade. Ainge indicated the phone lines are “busy as ever,” and perhaps that will lead to a deal in which the Celtics acquire a player who will contribute beyond this season.
Just don’t expect Boston to overspend for a rental. While the Celtics have plenty of financial flexibility thanks to the $28.5 million traded-player exception they obtained in the sign-and-trade that sent Gordon Hayward to the Charlotte Hornets, they’re more likely to leverage that asset this offseason, when the money tossed around in NBA free agency exceeds the number of game-changing players available on the open market.
“That’s for sure. Yeah, I’ve always felt that,” Ainge said of using the TPE in the offseason rather than before the March 25 NBA trade deadline. “Just because we’re hard capped during this year, and using the full thing on one player would be less likely (in season). But it’s not impossible. We’re still looking at different ways to trade. Not just with the trade exception, but the trade exception certainly gives us more flexibility to pull off some trades that we might not otherwise be able to do.”
Basically it boils down to this: The Celtics have a strong core, with Jayson Tatum, 23, and Jaylen Brown, 24, being their franchise cornerstones. But they might be more than an ancillary piece away from taking down the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers or Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference this season.
Therefore, unless the right opportunity presents itself, or Boston can land an impactful long-term contributor on the trade market over the next couple of weeks, Ainge might wait until the summer to make a significant splash.
“I wouldn’t eliminate the possibility of doing a deal for this year as long as I didn’t have to jeopardize the people that I can’t jeopardize,” Ainge said. “I’m not eliminating those other possibilities, but some of the names that are mentioned out there and the price to get them and the likelihood of re-signing them make it silly to do any sort of trade just for the next two months.”
All told, that won’t stop the rumors from circulating, in turn forcing everyone to decipher what’s fact and what’s fiction. That’s just life as we know it in 2021.
“You guys are living in a world where other teams and agents are filling people’s heads up with rumors about what’s happening, and they’re being used,” Ainge said. “I live in a different world than the world of Twitter, where it’s just, ‘OK, the Celtics and the Lakers and the Miami Heat and the Pacers are all trying to get player X,’ and it’s not even true. Those things just exist to — those are the things that make fans’ heads explode, and they’re not even real.”
One thing that’s real: The Celtics won their final four games before the All-Star break after struggling for most of the first half. And Boston’s most important midseason boost might have to come from those already on the roster.
