Ainge plays every angle
C’s boss keeps all draft scenarios afloat
The Celtics draft rumors are all over the map. They will trade up. They will stand pat. They will take someone who can help next season.
They will choose a player they can stash overseas for a year.
As tonight’s dispersal approaches, Danny Ainge is giving no fuel to any of the talk.
But he’s not denying any of it either.
In a conversation with the Herald, the Celtics president of basketball operations offered assistance to owners of each theory.
“We’re evaluating the entire draft, and we’re preparing ourselves to be anywhere in the draft — whatever happens,” Ainge said. “We could be in the middle of the draft or anywhere.
“We’re obviously preparing for the 27th pick, because that’s always the most likely scenario. But we could end up anywhere in the draft, so we’re preparing for the whole draft.”
As opposed to the last two seasons when the Celts were drafting third overall (after trading down from No. 1 last year) and got Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, there would appear to be less pressure this time around.
“I mean, it’s different, but not much,” said Ainge. “I guess there’s a little bit bigger group to evaluate with the 27th pick than the third pick, but we always bring in a lot of people. There’s always the possibility we could trade up or trade down, so we always have 75 to 80 players who come in for draft workouts, regardless of where we’re drafting. There’s just more people in this range, but drafting at 27, we don’t get to see the top people in the draft. They’re not coming in for us, because they know they’ll be gone by then.”
And if you think there’d be less trade talk with a less desirable asset, you’d be a bit off.
“No,” said Ainge. “I think, if anything, it’s more complicated. It’s more complex, and there’s probably more conversations than with No. 3.”
As for the draft-and-stash chances, he said, “I don’t know. It just depends on who we draft.”
According to league sources, the Celts have, indeed, been active in discussions. They certainly have future draft assets that are attractive, and there is, as well, young talent on board to make the club an even more intriguing dance partner for trades.
And with Marcus Smart a restricted free agent and far from certain to return — that’ll be based largely on what kind of offer he receives in the open market and whether the Celts deem it appropriate to match — there is still the possibility for a roster shakeup of some sort.
But it simply can’t be as big a reshuffle as last summer, right?
Uh, right, Danny?
“Yeah, it’s definitely more calm this year,” he said before delivering a rather important caveat. “Of course, at this time last year I did not imagine that we would have 11 different people on our roster either. So that was not part of the summer plan. We were prepared for anything and any opportunities, and I think it’s the same this year.
“But I can tell you I don’t anticipate making that many changes. I didn’t last year either.”
OK, so we’ll sleep with one eye open this summer. But it is different than last year. At that point, Ainge and the Celtics knew that even after they’d finished the regular season as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, they knew they weren’t the best team this side of the Mississippi.
The C’s lost in the conference finals to Cleveland this year, too, but that was without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward (and Daniel Theis). So there is every expectation the Celts will have a realistic chance to win the East and do well in The Finals this coming season.
But that won’t stop Ainge from looking and tweaking and protecting assets.
“Until you feel like you have a team that’s ready to win, it’s obviously better to have flexibility,” he said. “But we all want flexibility and we all want cap space and good players.”
And the ability to go in many different directions in this draft and in the player movement period that follows more earnestly afterward.