Wyc Grousbeck says rebuild will be a "multi-year process"

Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck recently sat down for a Q&A with Sam Amick at USA Today.

Grousbeck talks about drawing players to Boston, his thoughts on Doc Rivers and what the ownership group thought about paying three guys max money in Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen back in 2007, among other topics. It's a fantastic piece and deserves a full read, but here's a quote that stuck out:

Q: Every owner always has some sort of timeframe in mind, and a lot of people expect you guys to pull the trigger on something (trade-wise) major when all the pieces align. So what is your timeframe?

A: "Nothing would make me happier than to be contending next year. We went from basically worst to first in '07-'08. Having said that, this is going to be a multi-year process. We've got a young core that we're excited about. We've got picks (seven first-rounders in the next three drafts) and a GM and a coach that looks like a recipe for a lot of success in the future, but it doesn't look like it's an overnight success. So we're prepared for the long haul, but we'd love to accelerate it if we could."

This certainly sounds like a different Grousbeck than the one who was talking about fireworks a month ago. I'd say GM Danny Ainge had a talk with Grousbeck about tempering his expectations, but even Ainge is now talking about fireworks this summer.

Maybe they met in the middle. Grousbeck's excitement rubbed off on Ainge and Ainge's pragmatism brought Grousbeck back to reality a bit.

However long it takes, Boston has plenty of assets to get back to competing for banner 18. But like Wyc, I'd love if it was sooner rather than later.

Follow Eric
@ericblaisdell13