Celtics — and drama —still building as Kevin Durant remains in play – Boston Herald
That logic behind that old Ronald Reagan question — are you better off now than you were four years ago? — can be applied to where Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge stands today in the wake of the 2016 NBA draft.
Are the Celtics better suited to attracting Kevin Durant now than they were four days ago?
The short answer is no, which puts an unfair burden on Jaylen Brown, the highest Celtics draft pick since Chauncey Billups in 1997. No alternative — be it Kris Dunn, Dragan Bender, Jamal Murray or Buddy Hield — was going to trigger a more favorable fan response.
A vocal majority of Celtics fans wanted the pick packaged and traded for a star who, along with Isaiah Thomas, could help lure Durant. It was the Ainge blueprint for coaxing Kevin Garnett to Boston, and it might be coming back to haunt him now.
But the Celtics will get their chance when free agency opens on July 1, and the Oklahoma City forward begins holding audiences with potential suitors. Think of dignitaries in a parlor at The Vatican, waiting for an audience with the Pope. Such is the anticipation leading up to the most important courtship in the league since LeBron James originally bolted Cleveland for Miami in 2010.
The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported yesterday that the Celtics are part of a short Durant list that also includes Oklahoma City, Golden State, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Clippers and Miami, all awaiting word on meeting dates.
Ainge naturally can’t get specific — teams are subject to fines for contacting impending free agents this time of year — though he has a notoriously trigger-happy speed dial when it comes to free agents. That Celtics meeting with Durant will be scheduled soon enough.
“I can’t talk about free agency. I mean, good players. We need help. We need some good players,” Ainge said of the summer ahead. “And we have a lot of really good players. But, yeah, some more good players.
“We’ve been thinking about free agency for a while. So, yeah, we’re already into free agency with our planning and preparation. . . . Not much changes (now). It’s all part of the picture. So (Thursday), you didn’t see very many transactions, trades involving players. There were a few. But no huge big-name players. A few solid role players that were traded. Those could have major impact on flexibility. So we had opportunities to do some trades but they weren’t significant enough of an upgrade to our franchise to do and we felt like it was more important to preserve flexibility this summer.”
The thought of preserving flexibility isn’t exactly a sexy idea for Celtics fans. But Ainge has to be the adult in the room.
“I think that it’s harder for fans. I think that I’m probably harder on myself than anybody else could be,” he said. “But I think it’s hard for fans because they don’t see and they don’t know what is real. There’s so much talk about it on TV shows and radio talk shows and so forth that they don’t see what’s really happening. I’m a firm believer that, if all of you were sitting in my office and listening to our conversations, there might be 5 or 10 percent disagreement if this deal is good or not, but 90 percent I’m pretty confident would say, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ ”
With that sense of restraint in mind, here’s a look at some upcoming issues.
• Reassessing the value of the Brooklyn picks — Back in the summer of 2013, when Nets general manager Billy King fell for the fool’s gold of an aging Garnett and Paul Pierce, the shipment of first-round picks sent to the C’s was viewed as the key to a new era.
And those lottery tickets still may prove pivotal to the next great Celtics era. But as Ainge discovered Thursday night, even high lottery picks are only as good as the quality of the draft itself. He was ultimately underwhelmed by what teams were willing to offer. The first two of the Brooklyn first-rounders have materialized in the persons of Brown and Marcus Smart — players who need time.
The Celtics have the right to swap with Brooklyn next season, which they most certainly will. The Nets continue to deconstruct, most recently by unloading Thaddeus Young, and diluting their product almost to a D-League level. The 2017 lottery, while not expected to be on the level of the legendary 2003 draft, is said to be loaded.
But take a look at DraftExpress’ mock draft for 2017 — yes, it’s already up. Five of the six top prospects and 10 of the top 12 are high school seniors, and an 11th (Frank Ntilikina) is a 17-year-old Rwandan playing professionally in Strasbourg, France. Youth is the most imprecise element of all.
• Housekeeping issues — A lot can change over the course of the next week, including whether the Celtics retain the right to match offers to Tyler Zeller and Jared Sullinger. They have until Thursday to issue qualifying offers to both players, and normally would. But Zeller probably believes he can find a better opportunity elsewhere after spending last season as Brad Stevens’ center of last resort. And Sullinger, who will be paid handsomely somewhere because of his low post skills, simply disappeared during the playoffs.
Also, how badly do the Celtics want to bring back Evan Turner? Now that the salary cap has risen to $94 million, and virtually every team has spending room, the Celtics swingman will receive the first major contract of his career. Stevens wants him back. Will the Celtics pay what it takes?
The C’s also have until July 3 to pick up options on Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko. That’s not a lot of time to make a decision — three days into free agency.
• Assessing the value of Harrison Barnes — The last time the Celtics took a gamble on the fourth option on a talented team, they traded Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green. Though Green talked often of how he wanted to be The Man, he really didn’t. One of the C’s new targets will be restricted free agent Harrison Barnes, long thought to be a star in the making behind Golden State’s Big Three.
His 2016 playoff performances didn’t live up to his projections. Are the Celtics willing to pay star money for a player who has never actually put up star numbers on the biggest stage?
