Danny Ainge 'confident' he can pull off moves, but 'no guarantees'

by **bobheckler** Sat Jun 24, 2017 1:33 pm

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2017/06/boston_celtics_rumors_danny_ai_2.html

Boston Celtics rumors 2017: Danny Ainge 'confident' he can pull off moves, but 'no guarantees'

Posted on June 23, 2017 at 6:30 PM

Danny Ainge
Danny Ainge(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BY JAY KING

BOSTON -- Though Jimmy Butler swapped teams Thursday night, Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said he never held recent trade negotiations about the three-time All-Star.

Boston has been involved in Butler discussions before. ESPN's Zach Lowe detailed some of the previous chats in his piece here, but the Celtics never mounted a serious run at acquiring Butler this month.

Ainge said he did not talk with the Chicago Bulls over the last week before they traded Butler and the 16th pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and the draft rights to Lauri Markkanen.

"We knew that was likely," Ainge said of a trade. "Quite honestly, I thought that he was going to be traded last summer. He's a terrific player. But we've had many conversations with them over the last couple years, we just couldn't get anything done."

According to a league source, the Celtics this summer declined to offer any of their top draft assets, including this year's third pick, next year's Brooklyn Nets pick, or the future first-rounder recently acquired in the Markelle Fultz deal.

The Celtics could target other star wings that wouldn't cost as many assets. Gordon Hayward is an obvious free-agent target and the Indiana Pacers appear all but forced into trading Paul George.

"I'm confident (the Celtics can pull off something)," Ainge said. "But there's no guarantees ever. It's like you're playing poker with guys, you never know what's in the other hand. You can't play poker by yourself, I guess you can on your computer but then you never win. We feel like we have some opportunities to do some things this summer."

Increasing the difficulty for Boston, the most recent salary cap projection came in at $99 million, $2 million shy of the previous estimate. The Celtics knew a dip might be coming, but were caught off guard by the size of it.

"The salary cap did have an impact on us over the last few days," Ainge said. "I think there could have been some deals that were a lot more likely to happen had that not happened. But, at the same time, the cap number really isn't there yet. It's just a projection. But it gave us some more guidance and that changes some things. We have some tough choices to make."

bob
MY NOTE: Danny is through nibbling around the edges. The fact that he has turned down deals and stood pat on the trade deadline and not gone for deals that would have included Marcus Smart tells me he isn't swinging unless he gets one right in his wheelhouse and he is confident he can power it over the fence, if you'll pardon the cross-sport metaphor. And here he is saying he is "confident" he can make a trade after 7/1. That, to me, means "fireworks" are a real possibility.

In a related issue, on 7/1 Tyler Zeller's contract expires. It has to be picked up, and guaranteed, by 7/2 or he is an unrestricted free agent. That means that Danny needs to:

1. Find someone who wants to shed salary and will trade Danny for Zeller before 7/1, so they can waive him before 7/2 and save the $.

2. Find someone who wants Zeller on their roster next year and will wait for Danny to pick his guarantee up on 7/2, and then trade for him.

3. Pick him up for next season @ $8M.

4. Not pick him up and lose him for nothing.

Amir and Jonas are expired contracts. Danny has no leverage over them other than as a sign-and-trade. Kelly is a RFA and could likewise be used in a sign-and-trade if Danny doesn't want/plan on keeping him.

.

by **wideclyde** Sat Jun 24, 2017 2:02 pm

Replacing Johnson, Jerebko, Zeller and possibly Olynyk on next year's roster because they all either have holes in their games or will cost more than they are worth may sound good to us, but they may be harder as a full group to replace than many may think.

Any single one (especially the first three mentioned above) can probably pretty easily be replaced by at least as good of a player, but dumping out all them and trying to find four quality players may be difficult.

First, all four guys know their role on the Cs and were very professional in filling out these less than first string roles for at least the last two full seasons. They were all fairly proficient at providing about the same individual performances (except Olynyk) from game to game while very rarely doing more or doing less.

Second, even with less than first string roles, the all seemed to always be good to great teammates. No complaining, no whining about minutes, shots, touches etc, etc.

All teams need guys who can produce similar results from game to game as well as be good teammates.

Sure, we (certainly, at least ME) would all like to see Olynyk become a much more consistent scorer. If he had been able to get away from scoring 19 on one night followed by scoring 3 the next in his first four years he would have already been able to carve out more solid role and would have been re-signed by the Cs by now. We would all like to have gotten 10 points and 10 boards from our starting forward (in most games Johnson) and a consistent 8-9 points and 5 boards from Jerebko, and also have gotten steady and solid minute by minute production by Zeller. But, these guys are what they are at this point in their careers-pretty obvious that they cannot do much better.

My question is who are the four proven NBA players who will be available to come in as a group to replace these guys AND help us be a better team while still being appreciably less expensive?

I can see replacing one or two with younger guys who have not yet proven themselves yet to be NBA ready like Zizic, but I would not count on Yabusele, the guy from Germany, or any of the three second round picks to be able to help much next season.

Young and Mickey can be replaced by some of our "new" younger guys, but shredding the bench just hoping to get better production while saving a few bucks might just not be as easy as we may think. There is a lot to be said about how a core of guys (to include starters and reserves work together to make a team.

by **bobheckler** Sat Jun 24, 2017 2:20 pm

wideclyde wrote:Replacing Johnson, Jerebko, Zeller and possibly Olynyk on next year's roster because they all either have holes in their games or will cost more than they are worth may sound good to us, but they may be harder as a full group to replace than many may think.

Any single one (especially the first three mentioned above) can probably pretty easily be replaced by at least as good of a player, but dumping out all them and trying to find four quality players may be difficult.

First, all four guys know their role on the Cs and were very professional in filling out these less than first string roles for at least the last two full seasons. They were all fairly proficient at providing about the same individual performances (except Olynyk) from game to game while very rarely doing more or doing less.

Second, even with less than first string roles, the all seemed to always be good to great teammates. No complaining, no whining about minutes, shots, touches etc, etc.

All teams need guys who can produce similar results from game to game as well as be good teammates.

Sure, we (certainly, at least ME) would all like to see Olynyk become a much more consistent scorer. If he had been able to get away from scoring 19 on one night followed by scoring 3 the next in his first four years he would have already been able to carve out more solid role and would have been re-signed by the Cs by now. We would all like to have gotten 10 points and 10 boards from our starting forward (in most games Johnson) and a consistent 8-9 points and 5 boards from Jerebko, and also have gotten steady and solid minute by minute production by Zeller. But, these guys are what they are at this point in their careers-pretty obvious that they cannot do much better.

My question is who are the four proven NBA players who will be available to come in as a group to replace these guys AND help us be a better team while still being appreciably less expensive?

I can see replacing one or two with younger guys who have not yet proven themselves yet to be NBA ready like Zizic, but I would not count on Yabusele, the guy from Germany, or any of the three second round picks to be able to help much next season.

Young and Mickey can be replaced by some of our "new" younger guys, but shredding the bench just hoping to get better production while saving a few bucks might just not be as easy as we may think. There is a lot to be said about how a core of guys (to include starters and reserves work together to make a team.

Clyde,

I've been watching some video of Daniel Theis (aka "The German Guy"). I think he's going to be on the team this year. He fills the hole created by the likely-departing Jonas Jerebko and, no doubt, for less $.

bob

.

by **dboss** Sun Jun 25, 2017 3:13 pm

Here is the bottom line.

Our front line sucks!

Way too many games where they gave us nothing so I am not at all worried about replacing any of them except for maybe KO.

dboss

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