Mannix: Cs not "taking their foot off the gas" in pursuit of AD


Kyrie Irving's future with the Boston Celtics be damned, if reports are to be believed, Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics plan to maintain their pursuit of star big man Anthony Davis just the same.


Let me just start out this article with the caveat that almost everything you read from now until the middle of July at the soonest regarding player movement needs to be taken with a sea of salt. That out of the way, it seems one of several things is happening here:
  1. Danny and co. are trying their damndest to retain Kyrie, and are letting him know in a very public way that he'd be better off trying to make it work in Boston, and are willing to take big risks in the hopes that last season was an anomaly.
  2. Ainge et al. have an entirely different plan in mind regarding who they might pair Davis with, should they actually pull the trigger on an AD deal.
  3. There is yet another plan in mind, and all of this is largely smoke screen being used as cover.
I ranked the three potential outcomes (assuming this is good intel, and Mannix has a solid tie to the Cs' front office and is known fan of the team, so I have no reason to doubt he's actually hearing this, even if it may not be true) in order of plausibility, with Occam's razor suggesting Danny's ready to try and make the big move now, perhaps a bit too late. I'm sure there's other motives I've not thought of, feel free to suggest your own below in the comments.

Should Ainge actually make the deal, locals seem to have feelings on who they think David Griffin and Gayle Benson might want, and while it'd certainly sting terribly, IF there's a bonafide second All-Star (or nearly so) player being added to the mix -- Irving, perhaps, but maybe someone we're not even thinking of -- it's a deal I could live with.

The problem being we don't actually know the details, and I'm not going to get excited about the potential of flushing the vast majority of quality contracts down the toilet in pursuit of a one-year rental. Yes, we had to make big adjustments last time Boston traded for a pair of stars, but these players have so much more potential than even the centerpiece of the Kevin Garnett deal, Al Jefferson.

The proposed package of Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Robert Williams and the 14th pick would save a core good enough to compete if we brought back most current and potential free agents, but could just as easily turn into yet another debacle of even greater proportions. I do not envy Danny's job at moments like this - so many years of work can be dashed by the mercurial dispositions and aspirations of others.

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Image: Brian Babineau/NBAE;
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