"Dear Danny Ainge, Thank You" - Sincerely, Celtics Fans Everywhere

Kathryn Riley. Getty Images.

As Celtics fans, you're used to several things when it comes to this team. Inconsistent offense, blowing huge leads, Brad not knowing when to call timeouts, the two Jays dominating the entire league, there are things you can bank on as a fan. Well maybe the biggest guarantee in life is that if there is a star player who wants to be traded, you're going to hear that Danny Ainge and the Celtics are interested. It's like clockwork, even if it's not true. You get the sense that Ainge almost allows teams to use the Celts as leverage in order to drive the price up from a team that actually is interested. Remember when an "impeccable source" said the Celts were the favorites to land James Harden? That was fun.

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Well now that Harden is a Net, Ainge was asked about this whole saga

Not all that surprising that Ainge at least put feelers out there. That's what every GM in the league would do in that situation. Now why might the Celts not want to do that move? Easy. Look at the price

This shouldn't exactly be a surprise if you looked at the Celts cap sheet and realized what contracts needed to be included in order to make the money work. There are scenarios where maybe you try and use Kemba and a possible third team, but I think we all expected the Rockets to ask for Jaylen/Smart given what we knew they were looking for.

As I blogged yesterday, that simply makes no sense for the Celtics to do. Not just because of the talent going out the door, but how it screws with your depth as well fucks your entire window up. You go from a potential 10 year-ish window to basically needing to win in the next 2 years before Tatum is left with nobody and you don't have the draft capital to find replacements. I also do not think you are closer to a title with a trio of Kemba/Harden/Tatum with basically no depth, but that's just me.

So that's why I'd like to officially thank Danny Ainge for staying strong and not caving to parts of Celtics Twitter that want him to make a move just to make a move. Can't stand those people. Take a step back and think about things for me one time. 

Is there pressure for this Celtics group to actually get over the hump and make an NBA Finals? You bet your ass they do. Are things maybe tougher now that Harden is in Brooklyn? Maybe. But you know what? The second this team decided to not gut their team for AD they made it clear that they were invested in the two Jays. We are in Year 2 of that. Year 1 they were on the brink of the Finals. Year 2 is off to a pretty good start with both guys playing at an All NBA level. They have assets to improve the roster as is without gutting major pieces. This is not a team that has to be desperate and make "win now" trades that drastically change the fabric of the roster while not making it any closer to a title.

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I'm just relieved that Danny Ainge clearly agrees with that line of thinking.