Ainge hoping his trades jolt struggling team
Ainge banking on trades giving Celtics a jolt
Danny Ainge had to make a trade. He read it in the body language of his players and the frustration of his coaches. Now you have Evan Fournier, whom the Celtics president considers a care package for the troops.
“I guess the greatest pressure is just I want our players to feel hope, and I want our coach to feel hope, and I sense some discouragement internally with our guys,” he said in a Friday morning Zoom media conference. “So that was one reason why we did something now as opposed to waiting down the road.
“I think that it hasn’t been as effective as I thought,” Ainge said of the team he has assembled. “There shouldn’t be a reason why we go from the fifth-best defense in the NBA to I don’t even know what our ranking is now, but it’s not good. That shouldn’t have anything to do with talent.
“But obviously it does have a lot to do with defensive size and length and intensity but I think that our team has not lived up to it. This is a team I put together. I am responsible for it. I think that you talked about patience, I think I am very, very patient. I’ve been at this a long time. I think there’s a time to overreact, but
I didn’t feel pressure to do any of these things. I feel that this is a deal I would have done at any time over the last few years, probably, with this opportunity.”
Ainge had amplified his need for a “shooter with size” as the trade deadline approached, and applied that description to Fournier, building up the 6-foot-7 wing’s scoring and playmaking ability. His team needs it. Beyond the since-scuttled attempt to trade for Aaron Gordon, Ainge considered Fournier a good use of $17 million in trade exceptions.
He now has an experienced sniper to come off the bench
“I think his experience will help. His skills, his versatility, again, a 6-foot-7 guy who can handle the ball, he could play some 1, he could play some 2, he could play some 3, he can play in lineups that switch 1-4 or 1-5,” said Ainge, “I think he brings a lot of versatility and he’s an added weapon, offensive weapon for Brad to use. It alleviates some of the pressure on Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson ( Tatum) and Kemba ( Walker) to have to create so much, so I think, yeah, it could help. Just the burden that he could play throughout the course of the game, and his abilities and skills to make big shots in the fourth quarter, as well.”
Ainge called it a deal he would have made at any point in recent years, and now that he has Fournier’s Bird rights, likes the idea of bringing back the impending free agent.
“We hope to have Evan around, just like other players we acquire,” he said. “We hope to have him around for longer than just the remaining part of this year.”
But now, with Jeff Teague sent to Orlando as part of the Fournier deal, and Daniel Theis and Javonte Green sent to Chicago for big man Mo Wagner, the Celtics’ bench just added two new secondunit players.
And, Ainge hopes, the emo
tional spirit of his team rises again.
“Well, I’ve been around the team a lot throughout this season,” he said. “I’ve been stuck in Boston in my office, often when I’m alone, when the team is on the road. But I talk to Brad (Stevens) mostly every day. I talk to the players. I’m around the team, in the locker rooms, and I can just sense a feeling of discouragement and frustration, like would happen with any team that feels like it is playing below what it can play.
“So it’s not any one incident or any one personality, but there’s a difference when things are going really well, and when things aren’t,” said Ainge. “And I know guys are trying. My coaching staff works relentlessly and our players are in working every day, putting in the time and going through stretches of real optimism and hope, and I can see it in their play.
“But when you’re not living up to your expectations, the opportunity for discouragement and frustration creeps in and I think that happens with every team. It’s happened with every team I’ve been associated with. And so there is optimism and we get our team together and we have team meetings and film sessions and we go on a little run but we’re not able to sustain it. I just hope that by adding another veteran player that’s a versatile shooter with size and versatility that’s just going to give us a jolt.”