Danny Ainge held court with the media at the Auerbach Center Wednesday afternoon for the first time since suffering a mild heart attack during the Eastern Conference Semifinals in Milwaukee last month. Here's a breakdown of some of the more meaningful takeaways in the midst of the wide-ranging 20-minute press conference.
1. Danny Ainge isn't going anywhere after recovering from his second heart attack: Despite his health scare, Ainge has continued his duties as chief basketball decision maker with a very busy June and July ahead.
"I’m eating more plants and not the kind of plants in Walton’s garden, by the way," Ainge said of his lifestyle changes since the heart attack. "But I have a great bench here too. Like we have a great staff in Mike, Austin and Dave, right on down the list. Remy and Jake and everybody that’s very capable of filling in when I needed to step away there for a little while. But I haven’t had to miss much work...my role is not going to change."
In an offseason that's full of huge decisions about the future direction from the franchise, Ainge is ready to tackle things full steam ahead, something that is crucial for this team.
2. Kyrie Irving's future remains as uncertain as ever: Ainge talked at length about the two sides going through an engagement period this year even after Irving committed to Boston last fall. However, Ainge gave no indication that the those plans are still on at this point.
“I don’t know," Ainge said of the Irving engagement. "There’s not much I can say about that, honestly, but there’s ongoing conversations. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens there.”
Despite rumors swirling about Irving's likely departure, Ainge said there has been no indication yet from Irving's camp that he won't return. While it's fair to guess that Irving still hasn't had his mind made up, the team has not received an indication about whether a decision will be made ahead of the NBA Draft, the likely time a big trade could go down involving Anthony Davis.
“Yeah," Ainge said about whether the C's hope they will get an answer. "But, he can do what he wants. It’s his choice to do what he wants. Sure, I’d like to have answers to all your questions right now, that would be nice. Then I can relax even more, but it’s a busy time of year and there’s a lot of unanswered questions with free agency and draft and all of the players on our roster, all of that.”
Despite the uncertainty about such a big chip, Ainge said he would change nothing about his decision to make a deal for Irving.
"We made a risk by trading for Kyrie and, no matter what happens with Kyrie, I’ll never regret that. You just move on, to the next deal," he said.
3. Ainge is very optimistic about Hayward's future: The swingman is one of the only certain pieces to remain a Celtic heading into next season it looks like with a sizable contract for the next two seasons making him one of the highest paid players in the league. While Hayward's name has been considered as a potential trade chip for salary filler, Ainge talked about the former All-Star with plenty of enthusiasm as a piece the C's will be building forward with.
“I’m really excited for Gordon’s upcoming season," Ainge said. "He’s working hard right now in the gym. He’s here every day with five or six coaches and bodies out there working extremely hard. He’s put a lot of time in. I’m anticipating great things from Gordon this next year. I don’t really look at it as fading in the Milwaukee series. I look at it as sometimes it’s just opportunity.
"There’s only one ball out there. And I’m not worried about Gordon Hayward. I’m not worried about his future or how good a player he is. He’s doing everything he can. If he doesn’t become the player that he wants to be then it won’t be from a lack of trying. But I’m very excited and optimistic about his future.”
4. Ainge sounds like he's willing to roll the dice this offseason: The simple path this offseason would be to wait on a decision from Irving and potentially take a step back with the young core if the C's lose the All-Star point guard. However, Ainge did not sound like a man that was eager to stay patient amid a disappointing campaign when asked about weighing the risk and reward of a trade.
"There's always risk in making deals. We're not afraid of risk."
With no clear indication from Irving about his future expected before the NBA Draft, the Celtics may have to make a big decision about an All-Star type talent without any certainty about their future veteran pieces that could hit free agency. While keeping a name like Al Horford or Aron Baynes may be achieved by landing a big fish (player option), Ainge sounds like a man willing to roll the dice with a revamped core if the opportunity presents itself, despite the chance that it could just be a rental. How high of a price is he willing to pay for that? We will find out in the coming weeks.
5. Ainge acknowledges lessons learned from a disappointing year: While Brad Stevens put a lot of blame on himself for the disappointing campaign after a loss to the Bucks, Ainge tried to deflect some of that blame towards himself for the roster he created during last offseason.
"It was a very difficult job," Ainge admitted. "I knew it'd be difficult from the beginning of the year and we talked about that, but I think it was even more difficult than I anticipated and he anticipated. Again, I think he's going to be a lot better because of the year he went through. He's the least of our worries. We know that he's going to work to become the best that he can be and that he's going to learn from it. I wish every one of our players would put the time, effort and energy into what Brad does, but there's no other coach I'd rather have than Brad Stevens."
Ainge put Stevens in a lot of tough spots and came away with some new ideas that he hopes to use going forward.
"I’ve learned some things from this year, yeah," he said. "I think that it was a unique situation where we overachieved to such an extent the year before with young players and so many expectations -- not just their own expectations but expectations with everybody. I think I learned a lot this year from how a team can respond. Also, I think players aren’t the same today as they were even 10 years ago, or 15 or 20 years ago. But, no, I learned a lot."
