Ainge on the C's

Seems like Danny Ainge is trying to do a little damage control in the wake of the C's demolition by the T-Wolves the other night. While I think we can all agree that one game is not a good gauge of a trade, perhaps the Celtics are feeling a little pressure. Why else would Danny be making the rounds? So today both papers have some thoughts from Big-D.

The Herald has the more bland take.

"I think (the playoffs) are a good goal for Doc (Rivers) and our players to have, and it would be a good accomplishment for our team. I want them to do that for their own success. It's good to fight toward your goals."

Ainge stopped short of saying anything else, though the unspoken part is fairly clear.
He wasn't excited about the postseason team he inherited on the way to a second-round sweep by New Jersey in May 2003, or the one that was swept in the first round by Indiana a year later.

He won't be excited by a postseason toe dip now, either.

Seems pretty clear that he's trying to temper expectations. Also seems clear that he doesn't think this Celtics team is good enough to make the playoffs, and if they didn't, that wouldn't be the worst thing.

Peter May in the Globe has much more, however.

''I feel like we're closer to where we want to be," Danny Ainge, the Celtics' executive director of basketball operations, said yesterday. ''But I don't think we're necessarily a much better team right now, if that makes any sense. To me, it's kind of a sideways deal as far as winning basketball games right now. But I feel we're closer to where we want to be. I'll let you read between the lines."

At last, a semi-honest evaluation of the Celtics, and one closer to what we've discussed in this blog for a while. The Celtics made this trade for the long term, not the short term. While he refused to come out and say it, Ainge essentially acknowledges that the team may well get worse. But wait, there's more.

We all know, ultimately, where the Celtics want to be. They want to get there with a nucleus of Pierce, Szczerbiak, Kendrick Perkins, Delonte West, and Al Jefferson. ''We feel that's a very strong, solid group of guys as we go forward," Ainge said. Additionally, after the deal, the Celtics own five first-round picks in the next three years, although one is Cleveland's (in 2007) and the other is the conditional pick from Minnesota, which can be exercised in 2008.

So again, Ainge acknowledges what we've been discussing -- they plan to build around the nucleus of those five guys. The goal is to develop the pups, and surround them with complementary players. And Ricky Davis and Mark Blount weren't those guys.

One reason Ainge feels the Celtics are closer is the addition of Szczerbiak for Ricky Davis. He thinks Szczerbiak is the best player in the deal and added that Davis, while having improved both on and off the court as a Celtic, still was, as he put it, high maintenance.

''Ricky grew up a lot here and, as I said before, this was not about Ricky," Ainge said. ''But things happen, and not always things off the court. People are talking about Wally's defense. Well, Ricky had his problems there, too."

That despite the public pronouncements of Doc Rivers, who once said Davis could be the best defensive player on the Celtics because of his size, quickness, and athleticism. When it was all said and done, Davis was in Boston for fewer than 26 months.

So after 26 months of hearing about how much better Davis was, it turns out the Celtics thought he was still a pain in the butt. And it seems like Ainge wasn't as highly sold on Ricky's tenacious-D either. So where does all this leave us? It appears that Trader Dan may not be done yet.

Ainge called the [draft] picks ''valuable chips." While he clearly wouldn't indicate if anything else was afoot, he did make it clear the picks added to the value of someone who otherwise might not be tradeable for whatever reason. Asked if Raef LaFrentz might be one of those ''untradeables," Ainge refused to comment.

On Wednesday, Ainge, in his weekly visit with Glenn Ordway on WEEI, hinted he felt the Celtics were only a player from being a contender in the conference. He backed off that yesterday -- ''I don't think I said that," he said by way of explanation -- but here's what he told Ordway: ''In some ways, we can be one move away from being a team that can contend in the conference." He wasn't saying he saw the future Detroit Pistons, but he did say he thought one potential move might make the Celtics a top four or five team in the conference. He also said the move might come sooner rather than later.

I think Ainge is probably wrong about one move transforming the Celtics into a top 4-5 team in the East. Even if they managed to bring in another near-All Star player to complement Pierce, Szczerbiak and the young guys, they'd still be relying on Perkins, Jefferson and West for either key starting or backup roles (unless one of them went in the deal). And the team isn't very deep. But I do think Trader Dan (shall we just call him TD and be done with it?) has some very clear ideas about what he wants to do.