The Boston Celtics have been at or near the top of the Eastern Conference standings all season long. Behind the sterling play of all-NBA candidate Isaiah Thomas, the Celtics will go into Wednesday night’s showdown with the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers at worst tied for the best record in the East, and are considered by many to be the favorites to face the Cavaliers again in the Eastern Conference finals.
At the same time, the Celtics also find themselves at the top of something else: the lottery standings. That’s because, thanks to the blockbuster trade Boston made with the Brooklyn Nets in 2013 – the gift that keeps on giving to the franchise and its fans – the Celtics have the rights to Brooklyn’s first round pick this season, a pick that’s guaranteed to be within the top four spots in the lottery, and one that has a 25 percent chance of giving the Celtics the top overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft.
This is clearly the kind of position every team dreams to be in: having the ability to compete at the highest level, both now and in the future. But the assets that Boston has managed to stockpile – not only the Brooklyn picks (including the rights to next year’s pick) but also other draft assets and several potentially intriguing young players – also leave the Celtics facing another quandary: having to decide when – or if – they should cash some of them in to make a significant upgrade to their roster.
That’s why the Celtics have been linked, at various times, with trades for all-stars such as Jimmy Butler, Paul George, DeMarcus Cousins and Carmelo Anthony. But with every draft and trade deadline that passes, Boston winds up standing pat, and waiting to potentially make a move down the road. It’s a situation that could prove complicated to deal with in the wrong circumstances, with the players and coaches trying to win now wondering where the reinforcements are coming.
In Boston, however, everyone appears to be on the same page.
“No frustration from my part,” Celtics Coach Brad Stevens said recently. “I do what I was hired to do, and that’s coach the 15 guys in the locker room, and listen, I very much understand where we are in our present state. But I also understand where we could be, and we have a chance, things have to go well, to have a good, competitive team for a long time.
“One of the things I really appreciate about our front office and our ownership is they are really measured. We were really active in seeking the right deal, but we weren’t going to make the wrong one. So I completely, I don’t have anything but great things to say about all of them.”
From his perspective, it would be hard for Stevens to say otherwise. Since arriving with a six-year contract in hand during that summer of 2013 in which the Celtics sent aging icons Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn for a boatload of draft picks, general manager Danny Ainge has steadily collected assets and built the team back into a contender.
The first of the two biggest moves was stealing Thomas from the Phoenix Suns at the 2015 trade deadline. The dynamic scoring point guard who has become the engine of Boston’s rise cost only an expiring contract and a late first-round pick, allowing Ainge to save his best assets for later maneuvers.
Then there was the signing of all-star big man Al Horford last summer, proving that Boston – despite being a cold-weather market – could be in play for attractive free agent targets. Horford had several suitors, with his choice coming down to Boston or the Washington Wizards. Horford said a big factor in his deciding to join the Celtics was the team’s ability to be competitive for years to come.
“No question, no question,” Horford said. “That’s one of the things I looked at, the potential. But I also looked at what we had right now, the guys that we had, and the impact I felt like I could make with this group.”
Horford had seen that potential first hand during last year’s playoffs, when his Atlanta Hawks beat the Celtics in six games in a first-round playoff series. But while Horford has helped the Celtics rise to another level this season, there remains doubt about the team’s ceiling with its current crop of talent.
And therein lies the difficulties in the paths forward for Ainge and the front office to navigate. It’s an enviable position to be in, having a 50-plus win team along with the potential top pick in this year’s draft. But the Celtics have never quite offered up the kind of package necessary to land someone like Butler or George – two players who might have been available at the trade deadline in February. Either would have instantly become the best player on the roster and taken Boston from a team that will still be a heavy underdog against Cleveland in a seven-game series, if the Celtics can even make it that far, into one with a legitimate chance to make the NBA Finals.
The possibility of landing a potential superstar at the top of this year’s draft, however, like Markelle Fultz or Lonzo Ball, could allow Boston to contend for the next 15 years. It’s a difficult choice, to be sure, and one the Celtics have undoubtedly spent the past year wrestling with.
“I don’t know what they’re doing, but I trust them,” Thomas said. “I thought we would make a move (at the deadline), be it a big one or a small one.
“But when we didn’t, I wasn’t upset. I wasn’t upset at all. I know what’s at stake, I know we have a lot of things we can move around and things like that, but I wasn’t really paying too much attention to it.
“That’s their job, and I know they’re really good at it.”
This summer will be a pivotal one in Boston. Not only are the Celtics waiting for the outcome of next month’s draft lottery, but they’ll also have plenty of cap space to spend this summer – which they plan to use on a big-ticket player like Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward, who just so happened to play for Stevens at Butler. In the meantime, the Celtics will try to make it as deep into the playoffs as they can, hoping to win a series for the first time since 2012, when Pierce and Garnett were still Boston mainstays.
It’s a balancing act the Celtics have been doing for some time now. And, unless they commit one way or the other, it’s one they’ll be continuing for some time to come.