Boston Celtics: Ranking the 3 routes of improvement this off-season

3. Free agency

Ainge has had a fairly underrated career so far as general manager when it comes to wheeling in the big name free agents. Now, obviously he was never in on LeBron James and wasn’t able to get Kevin Durant to commit to the franchise in 2016, but that said, he has still been able to sign some highly coveted free agent during his last 17 years as the head executive in the Boston Celtics front office.

In the summer of 2016, he was able to corral the services of Al Horford, and just one year later was able to sign perhaps the most coveted free agent available in Gordon Hayward. Horford never missed the playoffs in his three seasons in green and white and Hayward looks unlikely to miss the postseason for as long as he plans on staying in a C’s uniform. Then of course there was Ainge replacing Kyrie Irving with the next best free agent point guard available in Kemba Walker.

As well as Ainge has done signing top market players, he will not own that luxury whenever he is able to negotiate with players next, as the team is well over the salary cap and actually approaching the luxury tax lines due to gaudy deals owned by Walker, Hayward, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and eventually Jayson Tatum when he gets his extension.

Instead, he will have to scour the end of the market, where many players may need to take a pay cut during the most uncertain free agent period in history due to the unknown ramifications of the league’s lost revenue from lost regular season games and no fans.