Ainge sits back, admires
Sees team develop in spite of adversity
WALTHAM — Danny Ainge has tried to be realistic about the Celtics’ chances this postseason. His head and heart rarely collide.
This is, after all, the guy who took a jackhammer to a 53-win team to build a new ceiling a few levels up.
“I thought going into the playoffs that we were 5050 against Milwaukee,” the C’s president of basketball operations told the Herald yesterday. “They’re a really good team and have some real good talent, and we had to play really well to win. So that was a great thing for us.
“Going into the Philly series, Philly looked terrific against Miami. But I thought to the level that we were underdogs, I didn’t think that we were that much of an underdog as they had us. I mean, I thought Philly was good and I thought it was going to be another good series — a series that we could win. But, again, we had to play flawless basketball and play really well. We obviously didn’t play flawless, and neither did they.”
Now, as the Celts prepare to meet LeBron James and the Cleveland LeBron Jameses in an Eastern Conference finals rematch, Ainge is hopeful but not out of his mind.
Sitting on the middle level of the health club that abuts the Celtic offices, he was fully aware of the task made all the more difficult by the absence of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, the two key players acquired last summer to tip the scale against the Cavaliers.
“I think obviously we’re the underdogs, and I think our guys appreciate that,” Ainge said. “They like that. They want to prove the world wrong.”
As for what constitutes success and whether the Celtics, under the circumstances, have already reached that point, well, Danny has no interest in your measuring implements.
“I don’t really look at where you get to,” he said. “I just think our guys have played well all year — whether they lost to Philly or lost Game 7 to Milwaukee. I mean, obviously those are good things, because they get to keep playing and they keep gaining experience in playoff games. But, I mean, I’ve just seen a lot of good things out of a lot of our guys this year. It’s been fun to see their development.”
It’s Ainge’s job to keep his eye on the bigger picture — the one wide enough to take in the seasons to come. It’s clear he likes what he’s seen and how it projects.
“Our last game, we had Jaylen (Brown), Jayson (Tatum) and Terry (Rozier) as our leading scorers,” he said of their 24, 25 and 17 points, respectively, in the Game 5 clincher against the 76ers. “It’s just been fun to see all the development of those guys.
“And I think Al (Horford)’s had an enjoyable time of being the mentor/leader of this group of young guys. I think he’s probably been the one that’s most surprised where we are from when the season started and guys went down with injuries. He probably had the greatest doubts and wondered, like, what would happen.”
Ainge said Horford never communicated that concern to him. “But you’re always worried about guys that might have doubts on who they have with them in the foxhole,” he said. “But Al’s never expressed any of that to me, nor Kyrie when Gordon went down. I think that’s because of the respect those guys have had for the way our young guys have played from the beginning.”
That beginning was a long time ago. The Celtics will be back on the court in Cleveland a week from tonight, their first time in the building since opening night — before Hayward was wheeled off the floor and expectations for their season were altered.
If Ainge’s thinking changed that night — and it probably did — he’s not saying.
“Honestly, it makes no difference what I believe,” he said. “What matters is how the players believe in each other.”
But in the fifth year since the start of his major reconstruction, Ainge knew he had built a team that could contend for a championship — something he knew wasn’t realistic even the year before when the Celts were the No. 1 seed in the East. This was different.
“I knew that we were going to be good,” he said. “I mean, I knew that we were going to have a special year. I don’t know what that meant. I don’t have any idea, because there are so many factors — obviously health being a huge factor, and your competition. You just never know going into a season, but, yeah, I felt this was going to be a really special year. And it has been. It has been a really special year in spite of all the adversity.”
Pressed a bit more, Ainge said, “I knew we weren’t the favorites to win the championship, but we were one of the top few, top three or four, teams to win the championship. Yeah, we were in the mix.”
Now? Not so much. Yet Ainge refuses to concede or believe these depleted Celtics are playing with house money.
“No,” he said. “I think our guys believe they can do something special, and I hope they can.”