Danny Ainge explains Celtics' lack of movement at trade deadline

The Celtics completed their fourth consecutive trade deadline on Thursday without adding to the roster. Danny Ainge talked to BostonSportsJournal.com this afternoon in an extensive conversation about the team’s mindset at the trade deadline, why certain deals didn’t come to be and what comes next for the franchise.

“We just didn't find a partner,” Ainge said. “We had a lot of ideas, things we would like to do but we just didn't find any partners in those things. I'm not stressed about it, I'm not mad about it. Nothing. I really think there wasn't a deal for us to do that was going to help us.”

There was no doubt that the Celtics could upgrade the back end of the roster despite some stellar play of late that had Boston winning eight of their last nine games overall despite dealing with a number injuries. However, the Celtics ran into a common obstacle that inhibited them from finding a swap they liked.

“When you set up to try to build a team, you don't want contracts that are obsolete or contracts that aren't good,” Ainge explained. “But occasionally those actually enhance your ability to make a deal because you aren't giving up much value and you can package with a draft pick for something.”

As we chronicled last month here at BSJ, the Celtics lacked the contractual flexibility to match the money on many deals if they weren’t willing to deal any of their core pieces. Finding a player that could help upgrade the C’s, was available on the market at a matchable salary and wasn’t commanding an absurd asking price from a seller proved to be a tough combination to find for Boston and a lot of other teams in the East.

In the interim, the Celtics will continue to score the open market for upgrades. Buyouts are expected to occur on a number of lottery teams in the coming days even though a valuable big man like Tristan Thompson is not expected to be cut loose per multiple reports.

“We will be paying close attention to the buyout market and see if there is anybody there,” Ainge said. “We'll be looking at every option. International players, G-League players, anyone we think could help make our team better. In the meantime, we really like our guys and our No. 1 focus is to get our people healthy.”

Outside of the Andre Iguodala trade in Miami, there was not a lot of movement among the contenders in the Eastern Conference. The Bucks, Pacers and Raptors all elected to stand pat in a market that had limited motivated sellers, according to league sources. The Sixers made two fringe shooting upgrades in Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III but those guys won’t get the opportunities to put up the numbers we saw in Golden State while playing spot minutes in Philly. The C’s were reportedly in on Burks as a bottom of the bench upgrade but the Sixers added an extra second-round pick to get the deal done for both.

What will be a critical question moving forward is whether guys like Burks or Robinson are an upgrade on the players the C’s already have at the back end of the rotation. Brad Wanamaker has bounced back from a slump in recent weeks and has been productive at backup point guard. Grant Williams is playing the best basketball of his career on both ends of the floor during the team’s five-game winning streak at center and power forward. Romeo Langford has shown flashes in limited opportunity and that potential has helped Ainge believe that sticking with this group (for now) was better than overpaying for a rental who may not necessarily be better.

“As far as the age of the roster,” Ainge said when asked about the balance between developing young talent and having experienced depth. “I do think it would probably be a little bit better if we had more of a veteran presence as opposed to a young player that doesn't play as much but I'm not sure that really matters in the present and the future. We have great chemistry, great veteran leadership on our team and really good young kids and that's why our team chemistry is so good. Even though it might not be ideal (to have so much youth), it's not bad. There's a lot of good that comes from it. We've seen it in these last few weeks. Romeo has played very good minutes and Grant Williams has made some amazing strides in the quality of play that he's been getting lately. With these opportunities with these guys around our team and being around good coaches, they are really shining and thriving with the opportunities they are getting and that's fun to see.”

The team’s play in the postseason will be what truly tells the tale in whether this gamble on youth and inexperience is the right call. Those fringe guys won't play much when everyone is healthy so the pressure is higher now on Boston’s best players to be at full strength for the playoffs knowing there is limited depth behind them but this group was always going to go as far as those guys could take them with no flashy names available.

“We have a lot of high priced contracts of guys that we all like and we don't want to trade,” Ainge said. “That's the core of our team.”

It’s unclear what this group is capable of as of now but his inaction today shows Ainge didn’t necessarily want to rock the boat unless there was a good enough upgrade to do it for. That type of player never materialized.