Danny Ainge won the staredown with Cleveland
Danny Ainge drew a line in the sand. When the Cavaliers evaluated Isaiah Thomas' hip and declared that his injury would require a bigger package from Boston, Ainge said he would throw in a second-round draft pick and nothing more. In other words, he politely told the Cavs to take a hike when they asked for another valuable asset like a second first-rounder, Jayson Tatum, or Jaylen Brown.
Finally, after days of renegotiations, Boston and Cleveland agreed on a deal Wednesday night. And all it took was a stinking 2020 second round draft pick.
Boston will send its 2020 second-round pick via Miami to Cavaliers to complete the trade, league sources said. Boston would budge no more.— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 31, 2017
When the news of Isaiah's "alarming" physical became public, the Cavs and the Celtics entered a good ole standoff. Cleveland wanted everything (first rounder/Tatum/Brown), while Ainge wanted to give nothing (except for a second-rounder, which is virtually nothing). Boston called the bluff, held their ground, and waited for Cleveland to blink. And boy, did they blink. Considering that they delayed the deal by many days, to say that the Cavs "settled" with one extra second-rounder that they can use in three years would be a gross understatement.
Makes sense. 2018 and 2019 Boston 2nd were top 55 protected. Seems like Cleveland blinked first and Ainge held his ground on giving up more. https://t.co/c94Emkf7yG— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) August 31, 2017
For the Celts, the late 2020 pick was an easy throw in and well worth the price to get this saga in the rear view mirror. After all, they were initially rewarded the second-rounder for a simply salary dump in 2015:
Celtics got 2020 2nd round pick from MIA for taking on Zoran Dragic's contract in salary dump in July 2015...looks like that came in handy. https://t.co/RaSQVdlV7N— Brian Robb (@BrianTRobb) August 31, 2017
Nice try Cleveland, but Danny Ainge 100% won this staredown. Enjoy that second-round draft pick that you can use three years from now!
And by the way, here's some behind the scenes footage of when Danny heard that the Cavs wanted more in the deal, probably:
via GIPHY
DIDN'T. BLINK. ONCE. That's how it's done, Dealer Danny.
Follow Erik Johnson on Twitter: @erikjohnson32
Photo via AP Photo