In The Aftermath Of Not Getting Kevin Durant Details Of The Celtics Meeting Are Starting To Surface
(Herald) – The possibilities, the twists and turns, the roads not taken — all of that and more has been going through Danny Ainge’s head since Monday when he received the phone call he didn’t want from Kevin Durant.
The free agent prize was making a courtesy call to the Celtics’ president of basketball operations ahead of his public announcement that would bring the dribbling world to a halt. It would be Golden State, not Boston.
If you are a Celtics fan, just know that Danny Ainge shared your deep disappointment that morning.
He still very much likes his club’s situation — and rightly so — but he is well aware of how much different things could have looked if Durant had gone Green.
And, just like the Celtic citizenry, he has wondered whether he could have done anything that would have changed that decision. Could he have made a trade? Could he have acquired a key player that convinced Kevin Durant to sign here?
“You know, I thought about that before and I’ve thought about that after, and I really don’t think so — shy of a couple of moves that I couldn’t do,” Ainge told the Herald in a lengthy conversation this morning. “But in deals that we could have done that we refused to do, I don’t think that would have mattered for this. I think that KD really likes our players.”
In other words, Ainge would have had to part with one or more core players that were part of the reason Durant was attracted to the Celtics in the first place.
Ainge then paused and delivered the fundamental truth that doomed the Celtics’ pursuit.
“Under any circumstances,” he said, “we weren’t going to be able to produce Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.”
Now that the dust has settled, it’s interesting to start to hear some of the specifics about the Celtics meeting with KD this past weekend. I suggest you read the entire article because there are some good nuggets in there, but a few things stood out to me
– Noticed that when faced with disappointment yet again, Ainge went back to his tested line of “allowing himself to get excited” you may remember, this was the same line we heard after they got the third pick in a two player draft.
Did they really have a chance during that 48 hour period, or is that just a little fluff to make all us fans less depressed? You be the judge.
– When it came to the actual meeting, we got a two phase approach. Players went first, I can’t believe Olynyk couldn’t close the deal if we’re being honest, and I can only imagine what the hell was talked about. Obviously Brady didn’t work which is bullshit, but maybe this group should have been just Isaiah and Brady.
What I care about is the basketball side. The piece went on that talk about how they planned on using Durant, system, all that shit. In reality it was probably like look, we’re prepared for you to get the ball and do whatever the fuck you want. See that roster? ignore it, tell us who you want. That seems little more realistic than pitching Durant on how he is going to mesh with Avery Bradley and Jonas Jerebko or something.
– In what was maybe my favorite little nugget of this whole thing was what Ainge said when it came to their overall offseason, and the moves they chose not to make
See this is sort of the problem in my opinion. Sure, I’m in total agreement with Danny that you don’t do a move where you are going to get ripped off. But maybe the problem isn’t so much how much you like your young pieces, but how little other teams do, which force you to throw more into the pot to the point where the deal no longer makes sense. I’m also a little skeptic of saying, we had offers, we just couldn’t make them. That may be true, but it also sounds like a team that maybe didn’t have that many takers.
I’m not sure what I expected Ainge to say in regards to this meeting, it all seemed pretty cookie cutter which fits his MO. Let’s just next summer when we try this whole thing again, no matter who the FA is, we come up with a different strategy. That’s all I ask.