It’s not any stretch to say that the Boston Celtics’ 2022 offseason was one of the greatest emotional roller coasters a fanbase has gone through in quite some time. Need proof of that statement?
“I wonder how Ime Udoka will deploy Danilo Gallinari in his rotations” was a legitimate sentence on September 1. That seems like an eternity away at this point with Udoka suspended for the 2022-23 season and Gallinari likely missing the upcoming campaign as well due to an ACL tear.
Here’s another distant memory that we are mere months removed from — the Boston Celtics being in the mix for Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant, using Jaylen Brown and Derrick White as the primary trade chips, and keeping the likes of Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams out of negotiations altogether.
In hindsight, it’s hard to tell how serious the team was about landing KD. Maybe Durant was just bringing the attention onto himself while allowing Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons to integrate into the Nets lineup. That’d be the ultimate leadership move from a player many question being able to be the top guy on his own team.
iHeartRadio Boston Sports Director Adam Kaufman believes that the C’s recent signing of former Brooklyn big man Blake Griffin — one that practically nobody around the Boston beat saw coming — is a sign that Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens was never actually in on a Durant trade:
Favorite thing about #Celtics adding Blake Griffin is it's more evidence Brad Stevens works in shadows. Transactionally, when there's someone Stevens is genuinely interested in, we never hear about it. Further leads me to believe the Kevin Durant talks were just due diligence.
— Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) September 30, 2022
Hopefully Jaylen Brown is convinced the Boston Celtics-KD trade rumors were due diligence
Whether or not the Celtics front office wanted to pair up Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum is irrelevant at this point. It didn’t happen and now both Boston and Brooklyn need to placate their two All-Star wings.
If the Cs can convince Jaylen Brown that the KD talks were due diligence — and to his credit, he seems to have taken the trade rumors in stride — then they can move on from a summer of barking but no biting from all parties involved in the Durant drama.