The Boston Celtics proved to be a team that’s a few small moves away from potentially winning it all. Danny Ainge hints he’s willing to make said moves.
When President of Basketball Operations and General Manager for the Boston Celtics, Danny Ainge, took to his first media availability for the 2020 offseason earlier this week, he hit on quite a few key subjects that likely will give fans enough to talk about until Christmas.
Perhaps the main talking point brought up by Ainge, however, was the fact that he believes that while the Cs are worthy of being in the conversation for championship contenders, they still need to find ways to improve if they wish to get over that last hump and make it to their first NBA Finals since the 2009-10 season.
I believe the exact phrasing he used was “we’re not good enough.”
"“We feel like we can beat Miami, but we didn’t. They beat us fair and square. They played better down the stretch of the games in that series. I have great respect for them and all that they’ve accomplished. We’re going to try to get better.”"
To be frank, this quote brings music to the Houdini’s ears!
All season long we’ve been preaching the idea of roster shakeups, whether it be via trades, free agency, or even at this year’s mid-season point when teams were allowed to explore the buyout market.
With this, Ainge somewhat double-downed on the outcome of the team’s quiet trade deadline/ buyout market time period this season, claiming that all Boston really needed was to stay healthy.
"“We had plenty of depth, assuming we don’t have Gordon and Kemba banged up.”"
He did, however, state that though the end result was that of silence, the behind the scenes activities were of the exact opposite nature.
"“We tried to do some things. We tried very hard.”"
For fans who believe the Boston Celtics need to make some moves this offseason in order to better bolster their roster, these quotes should make you feel happy. Acknowledgment of a problem is the first step towards its solution.
Now, all we can really do is wait and see how things play out… while also speculating about potential routes the Cs can take — free-agent targets, trades, etc.
Let the 2020 offseason begin!