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Tim BontempsESPN
Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said the thinking behind the team’s moves ahead of Thursday’s NBA trading deadline – and especially the acquisition of Evan Fournier in a deal with the Orlando Magic – was to provide an unreliable team a reason to have some optimism.
“Talk with [coach Brad Stevens] especially every day. I’m talking to the players. I’m around the team, in the locker room, and I just feel a sense of discouragement and frustration, just like any team that feels they’re playing under what they can play, “Ainge said Friday morning. it is not an incident or a personality, but there is a difference when things go very well and when things do not.
“But when you don’t live up to expectations, the opportunity for discouragement and frustration creeps in and I think it happens to every team. It’s happened to every team I’ve been associated with. And so there’s optimism and we bring our team together and have meetings of team and film sessions and we go on a small run, but we are not able to sustain it.
“I just hope that adding another veteran player who is a versatile shooter with size and versatility will only give us some noise.”
The Celtics, who are in Milwaukee to play for the Bucks on Friday night, are definitely a team in need of a shake-up. Boston is only 21-23 this season and ranks eighth in the Eastern Conference standings – well below the Boston standard set last season, when it was a top-ranked 4 and finished the Eastern Conference finals in three of the last four years.
However, this year’s group never clicked the same way after losing Gordon Hayward as a free agency – a move that came after the nerds of Kyrie Irving, Al Horford and Marcus Morris, leaving everything to nothing but the previous season. Hayward’s departure, however, left Boston with a $ 28 million trade exception – which the Celtics used to land Fournier in Magic for Jeff Teague and a pair of second-round picks.
Fournier, 28, has an average career-high 19.7 points per game this season and will give the Celtics another long and versatile offensive player, who should fit nicely into Stevens’ system. And although Fournier has an expiring contract, Ainge said he hopes the goalkeeper will be with the Celtics for a long time.
When Ainge was asked if the Celtics are now able to compete with teams at the top of the conference – such as the Milwaukee, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers – he said he was not sure. But he said that this is not the only reason to make a move like this.
“I also feel an obligation to more than just [that]”Ainge said.” We’re dealing with people here. And I feel like we’re always trying to improve – every trading deadline, every off-season. And I felt there was an opportunity. And I felt there were more opportunities, but some of them didn’t work.
“But especially with Evan, I thought this opportunity was unique. And to add a player of his caliber, we often talked about size shooting, here’s a 6-7 year old who is a good shooter, can play , can do manage the ball.Just another creator for us.And a very consistent player.And we are happy to add it.I think it is a good use of [trade exception]”Boston, which also escaped the luxury tax by sending starter Daniel Theis to the Chicago Bulls in a separate deal, was overwhelmed at both ends this season, with Ainge highlighting the team’s decline. fourth in defense last season at 24. This season, as a special source of disappointment.And with the Celtics hovering around the edges of the Eastern playoff image, Ainge has now decided it’s time to shake up the list, hoping that Boston will return to something closer to the level it uses.
“This is a team we put together. I’m responsible for that. I think you talked about patience; I think I’m very, very patient. I’ve been in this for a long time. I think there’s a time to overreact, “But I haven’t felt the pressure to do any of these things. I feel like this is a business I would have done at any time in the last few years, probably with this opportunity. But I think the biggest pressure is just that I want to.” “Our players feel hope and I want our coach to feel hope and I feel a certain internal discouragement with our boys. So that was one of the reasons we did something now, as opposed to waiting on the road.”