Danny Ainge on Boston Celtics free agency preparation: ‘We have a busy week’ and ’different opportunities’

Danny Ainge

Boston Celtics basketball general manager Danny Ainge laughs during a news conference, Monday, June 24, 2019, in Boston, to introduce the team's 2019 draft players. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)AP

Like a defender on the court getting burned by a Kyrie Irving dribble move, Danny Ainge is left to recover from a fake-out from his soon-to-be former point guard.

With the preseason promise is now a footnote in a weird chapter of Boston Celtics history, Ainge and company are forced to turn the page.

“We have a busy week to prepare now,” Ainge told reporters after introducing his four newest Celtics to the world. “It’s clarified in the fact that the draft is over... now we can focus on free agency. And we have this entire week to prepare for that.”

Barring an M. Night Shyamalan twist, Ainge will likely find himself flush with cash in a summer that could see more than a third of the league change uniforms. All levels of players are available which puts the Celtics in a good position to capitalize.

“I like the fact that we have different opportunities,” Ainge said. “We have some flexibility but I don’t really know what is realistic yet. That’s what we’ll spend the rest of this week trying to figure out... but I’m excited about the opportunity. I’m excited about the flexibility that we have.”

Obviously it would have been more exciting to have a star-laden roster ready to pounce on a wide open NBA and contend for a title, but that opportunity has passed. All Ainge has now is a spreadsheet that tells him what he can spend, and a list of players that might get some of that money.

“We have a really good feel for all the players in the league, who they are and how they might fit with us and our needs and so forth," Ainge said. “We will have a lot of conversation. That’s probably the biggest thing, just to get organized as we possibly can for all the possible scenarios in free agency.”

While Ainge is getting ready to suss out which players to pursue, this is a job that he wishes could have been done earlier.

The NBA rumor mill has nearly spun off its foundation already and the official opening to free agency is still a week away. That means back-channels have been humming throughout the league, getting word to players and agents that hefty paydays might be waiting for them should they happen to wait and test the market.

The perception around the league is that every team is guilty of tampering in this way somehow, and that it’s nearly impossible to effectively police. So again, as it is asked every year, the question becomes how can it be stopped.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” Ainge said. “I think, like I mentioned the other night. I wish we did free agency before the draft. That would help.”

Maybe if this was the case, Ainge would have been able to hold on to one or more of his nearly departed players. Maybe he wouldn’t be in this position for the next week. Or maybe this is how things would have gone regardless of timing. It’s impossible to say.

The thought does linger, though, about what what could have been and if there might have been a way to prevent this all from happening. The Celtics can’t dwell on it, though. All they can do is what they’ve asked players to do time and time again when things go wrong on the floor: move on and make the next right play.

Or in Ainge’s case, sign the next right player.

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