Friday, Feb. 9 - Pacers at Celtics
Pregame – Ainge Addresses Deadline Decisions & Buyout Plans
BOSTON – Thursday’s trade deadline was hectic for many NBA teams, but it was as quiet as could be for the Boston Celtics. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge explained Friday that he didn’t feel the need to make any trades because he was happy with the recent success of his team and sees great potential in its young core.
“There for sure was an idea that we didn’t need to do anything,” Ainge said Friday evening at TD Garden, where the C’s were about to tip off against the Indiana Pacers. “We really like this group of guys, who obviously have been having success. We have a really good, young, core group of guys too, along with Al, so we didn’t really want to make a mess out of that."
The Celtics did make one move on deadline day, though it was not in the form of a trade. The team signed veteran big man Greg Monroe, who had recently been bought out by the Phoenix Suns.
“We needed that position, we felt, going into the Playoffs,” Ainge said of the Monroe signing. “It’s a long season and we’re an Aron Baynes twisted ankle away from playing undersized centers at center in (Al) Horford and (Daniel) Theis, which we’ve done this year, but there’s some matchups that we’re going to need stronger bodies. So now we have Baynes and Monroe at that position.”
Ainge hinted that, with the deadline passed, the team could continue to explore the buyout market. Nonetheless, he also said that the team doesn’t have any major holes.
“We’ll look and see who gets bought out,” Ainge said. “We need two-way players. It’s hard to just put players in that can play one way … As we stand right now, I don’t think there’s a big hole for us, but we’ll look for a good player that may be better than what we have.”
In other words, the door is still open for more fresh faces to join the Celtics this season; but, at the same time, Ainge is satisfied with the current state of the team, so he’s not in any rush to further alter the roster as it heads into the final stretch of the season.
- Taylor Snow