Celtics' Ainge: No Pressure To Do A Deal
BOSTON (CBS) –The NBA trade deadline is approaching, but Celtics president Danny Ainge doesn't think his team will be very busy.
"It's been a busy last few days, but you sift through a lot in the week of the trade deadline. Today, I don't know how busy it will be," Ainge said Thursday morning in his weekly appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub. "There is a possibility of things happening, but I'm not sure anything big and exciting will happen."
"We have nothing going right now," said Ainge. "Unless someone meets our demands or if we change our views and meet someone else's demands we could get something done. But typically everyone is posturing until the last minute."
"We're not panicking or not feeling pressured to do a deal right now," said Ainge.
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There have been plenty rumors around the Celtics over the last week, with the biggest involving point guard Rajon Rondo. But Ainge shot that down quickly.
"There is nothing like that going on," he said of the Rondo rumors. "I've said before there was one time in his eight years that was something that was a very real possibility (a proposed trade for Chris Paul), and it didn't happen. The same thing happened with Paul Pierce at one time. We're sort of glad that didn't happen. Red (Auerbach) used to say the best deals are the ones you don't make."
Ainge said there are a few different paths the Celtics could go down, but they are keeping every option open.
"We have a few different directions we could go. We're trying to be opportunistic and get value for players that might be available, flexibility, more assets, trade exceptions. There are all different ways we could go today," he said.
Ainge did say he was listening to offers about everyone on the roster, but that's just part of his job to know the value of his players.
"There have been conversations going on for the last couple weeks in some scenarios. In some of those we owe them a call, in others they owe us a call," he explained. "There are things being discussed, but most of things we're talking about I don't believe will happen. There are some smaller deals that I believe could happen."
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Ainge did say that it's much easier to pull off trades in the off-season.
"Teams have cap flexibility, free agents are free agents and things become a little more clear in some regards," he said. "The deadline is time to make some deals, but the summer time is the best time. That's why we're not impatient, not panicking or feeling pressure to do anything right now."
Ainge Feeling No Pressure As Deadline Approaches
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