BOSTON - Danny Ainge wants to make it clear after the Celtics made four picks on draft night.
He is not disappointed.
Despite Ainge's hopes being dashed of packaging some picks and moving up in the draft, he stood at the podium late Thursday night a tired President of Basketball Operations, but not an upset one.
"There’s no frustration," Ainge said. "We tried hard to trade up. We spent the last couple of weeks trying to move and today was the only time we had any indication we could move up, but we were trying. At the end of the day, it’s like Red Auerbach used to say, ‘Sometimes the best trades you make are the ones you don’t make.’ Maybe we were going too hard at it. There was a time where I thought, ‘Whoa this out of control. We are putting a lot of eggs in one young player’s basket.’ So I’m not frustrated. In the long run, maybe it will be the best.”
Rumors? Oh, there were lots of them. The Celtics were linked to a few potential blockbuster trades, including one for the Sixers' No. 3 pick and another for the Knicks' No. 4 pick. They were also in talks with Charlotte at No. 9. How true were the rumors? We don't know. Ainge did say the team thought they were close to a deal, though.
But nothing came of the talks - if there actually were talks. Ainge amitted to trying to trade up, but he was also quick to mention that some of the reports out there were bogus, though he didn't get into details.
“The fans feed into what is being written and said too," Ainge said. "I did say we would try to move up but the price was way too high. There are so many rumors out there and things that are said and written that aren’t even close to being true. Made up stories with no sources and fake sources. People get caught up in these rumors and their expectations grow even higher.”
There were certainly some disappointed fans Thursday night when pick No. 16 came along. While Louisville guard Terry Rozier was high on the Celtics' list, he wasn't even on the lists of many who thought they knew what the Celtics were looking for.
Georgia State's R.J. Hunter is a player who fans can get behind, and one that fell to Boston at No. 28. The same can be said for LSU's Jordan Mickey, a versatile forward who can defend multiple positions and led all of NCAA in blocks this season.
But there was no home run on Thursday night. There was no "big trade" that shook up the roster, and no player chosen that has fans really buzzing, at least right now.
But the Celtics don't play tomorrow. There's still time to get those players in the coming months - that's another big challenge in and of itself.
“We will finish our roster this summer," Ainge said. "Obviously there are holes in the big spots, but not so much in the guard line now, but our roster isn’t complete. What you see now, if you have learned anything, that’s one thing you should know: What you see today is not what you’ll see tomorrow, or next month. We are a team that is building for a championship and will continue to do that by finding the best players we can.”