Boston Celtics: Danny Ainge hints offseason roster changes coming

If you’re looking for scapegoats for the Boston Celtics’ underwhelming 2020-21 season that is now looking like it could end with a trip to the lottery, general manager Danny Ainge would like to divert any attention away from his head coach.

Throughout a season of injuries, COVID-19-related absences, and Indiana/North Carolina head coaching rumors, Brad Stevens is not the reason why the Cs are struggling according to Ainge.

Jared Weiss reported the GM’s comments on 98.5’s Toucher and Rich talk show defending the 8-year Boston Celtics head coach.

Per Weiss’ verified Twitter:

If Brad Stevens is not the real issue, Ainge must feel the Boston Celtics roster is.

Clearly, someone is to blame. While the various hardships the team has faced can be used, that argument holds less weight when you look at the team tied for most titles in league history across the coast, the Los Angeles Lakers.

The defending champions had a shorter offseason, and have had worse injury luck, but are 40-30 and have a chance of playing their way out of the postseason play-in here in the final week of the 2020-21 season.

Without LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers got by with Kyle Kuzma, Alex Caruso, and Talen Horton-Tucker as primary contributors. Cliched as can be but applicable here: when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

The Boston Celtics had Jaylen Brown for 58 games and Jayson Tatum for 63 (and counting) yet stand at .500 and could end up that way with a season finale against the New York Knicks, a team battling for a higher playoff seed.

Clearly, the makeup of the roster is too flawed to feasibly challenge the top dogs in the east…and has largely struggled with the middle of the pack as well (3-5 against Atlanta, New York and Miami).

Given Ainge’s insistence that the voice of the locker-room is still effective, it’s the locker-room itself that is going to be canned, assuming Wyc Grousbeck doesn’t do the unthinkable by letting go of the man who created it to begin with in Ainge himself.

Brown’s injury likely keeps him in a Boston Celtics uniform, while Tatum is almost certainly not going to head for the exit after signing a five-year, $195 million extension this past offseason to remain the face of the franchise moving forward.

Beyond them? It’s anybody’s guess. The 2020 rookie class will be useful as cost-controlled contributors, while Robert Williams’ own injury issues could muffle his trade value. Williams is also a Tatum favorite, which undoubtedly helps his cause.

Kemba Walker (player option) and Marcus Smart are two guys that could be looking for new contracts in 2022, so a new home for either in the offseason isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Tristan Thompson’s tenure in Boston has been tenuous at best, so his $9 million figure is flip-able as well.

The 2019 rookie class has been ineffective by and large, so them remaining intact in 2021-22 is unlikely. Semi Ojeleye is a restricted free agent flight risk, Jabari Parker’s pact’s second year is non-guaranteed, and Luke Kornet and Evan Fournier may not get the offer they would hope for from a Celtics front office that may not feel a reunion is justified.

Whatever the next week holds for the Boston Celtics, just don’t expect to see this same roster take the TD Garden floor next season on opening night.