Ainge busy before the season begins

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Danny Ainge is as busy as ever. When he's not building the Celtics current roster to make a run at Banner 18, he's building for the future. Recently, he's also had to massage the ego of Rajon Rondo, who was involved in trade rumors.

Ainge sat down with Comcast SportsNet on media day to discuss what he's been up to lately.

ON RONDO'S REACTION TO TRADE TALKS
I think that feelings get hurt and there's emotions involved when your name gets bandied around in trade rumors, unfortunately. I talk to the players about this because every player is involved in trade rumors, as Ray Allen was a few years ago. I try to be as open and honest as I can with them with what's happening. It's just the world we live in now. You're name is going to be mentioned whether it is or not. Whether you're actually involved in trade rumors or not.

Rondo and I had a long talk, I've had many conversations with his agent, and I feel like Rajon is in a very good place.

ON WHAT HE DID DURING THE LOCKOUT
The lockout I've obviously gave as a chance to really spend more time in preparation of the short offseason and evaluating. Even though we weren't able to talk to players and agents, we were able to talk to other teams. One of my jobs during the lockout was to get an idea of the value of some of our players. What were my options, depending on what direction we wanted to move?

I was able to find out some of those things. You'd be surprised that most of those decisions are really easy to make. You don't even have to consider some. There are other trades that are a little bit enticing or intriguing. We still believe in our guys and these are the best opritons we have.

ON HOW THE SHORT SEASON WILL AFFECT THE C'S
Doc Rivers and I communicate all the time anyway. It'll be Doc's choice who he wants to play, but you have to anticupate a 15-man roster utilized more than in the past. You can't establish an eight- or nine-man rotation through this kind of schedule. And anticipate there will be days off. It's wiser for our veterans to have days off. And we need to rely on our bench and even inactive players to get us through the day on many games.

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