WALTHAM – The last time they had at least eight picks in the NBA Draft was 1984 when the selection process lasted 10 rounds.

The Celtics drafted 10 players that year, led by first-round choice Michael Young, who did not even make the team.

More than 30 years later, the Celtics are in possession of eight picks in Thursday night’s draft, including three in the opening round and five others in the second round.

Seven of those eight picks, including the No. 3 choice, were obtained via trades made by president of basketball operations Danny Ainge since the summer of 2013.

It is highly unlikely that the Celtics will bring eight rookies to training camp in the fall, and there are expected to be some deals made this week to reduce the number of picks they have.

Since the draft was reduced to two rounds in 1989, the most picks made by a team was seven (the Philadelphia 76ers in 2014). The Sixers in 2015 and the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008 used six draft picks.

All the attention is focused on the third spot in the draft, which the Celtics own thanks to the 2013 trade that sent Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets.

They are looking around the league, trying to make something happen to acquire a quality player with NBA experience rather than draft a prospect.

A match might be made with the 76ers, who would like to select Providence College guard Kris Dunn and who could offer a young big man like Jahlil Okafor or Nerlens Noel to the Celtics.

The other two first-round picks – No. 16, which came from the Dallas Mavericks in the Rajon Rondo trade and No. 23, the Celtics’ own choice – are also in play as far as a trade is concerned.

“It kind of just happens,’’ said director of player personnel Austin Ainge of a trade. “It’s not the thing you plan. It depends on how much the phone rings or how intense the discussions get.

“We will prepare for the draft like we are going to take them. You don’t know how the other teams are going to respond to trade discussions. It could get dominated by trade talks or there could be zero trade talk. It’s just hard to tell.’’

Ainge said over the weekend that the Celtics have whittled down the list of candidates to be taken at No. 3 to four or five players. That group likely includes Dragan Bender (who will work out for the team Tuesday), Jamal Murray, Jaylen Brown, Dunn and Marquese Chriss or Buddy Hield.

“We’ve been narrowing at this point,’’ said Ainge. “We have them in groups. Maybe for our first pick, we’ll narrow it down to these (few) guys. The second group (for the other first-round picks) is a little bigger, maybe eight or 10, because you don’t know who’s going to be there. We do our best in guessing and debating the groups.’’