The Boston Celtics are still in the thick of NBA trade rumors and they don't seem to be affected with losing DeMarcus Cousins.
They have little reason to lament as most followers of the NBA know that they have the war chest of assets that they can use to outbid the New Orleans Pelicans-if they wanted to.
However, the Boston Globe confirmed that they were not really interested in the first place. "According to league sources, a Cousins-to-Celtics trade was never going to happen because the Celtics never had any interest in acquiring him. There never were trade talks. There never were offers. Cousins-to-Boston was mostly a pipe dream concocted on the airwaves. It was never a reality, according to the sources."
The Celtics are just too wary of the issues surrounding Cousins. They talked to the six coaches that Cousins played under and the remarks were "ominous." It cannot be said that Danny Ainge and his staff did not exercise their due diligence.
Now, the Celtics are still seeking a center but they are being linked with other big names like Jimmy Butler and Blake Griffin. If they will reserve their top assets for those players, then they can only get a center for cheap.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Celtics maintain their interest in Jahlil Okafor. He mentioned this on the Mike and Mike show (h/t Liberty Ballers)
"Well Portland decided to do a different deal to get Jusuf Nurkic...Denver and Portland did that trade. So Okafor is kind of still there. I mean he's been so out there you tend to think that Philadelphia will find something in the next three days where they move him. I've heard that Boston has still give that some consideration. Chicago is another team that's said to have shown some Okafor interest. You can rest assured Philly's gonna spend the next three-plus days trying to find a trade home for Jahlil Okafor. Once the prospect of a trade has gone that far, it's hard to pretend that didn't happen, but at this point as we stand Philadelphia doesn't have an Okafor deal and obviously another team that looked at him seriously - New Orleans - that's not an option."
The Sixers should probably not expect too much. After Cousins was acquired with such a weak package (although the situation was unique to Cousins) and the number of center options in the market, the odds really stack against them. Only a couple of teams are reportedly interested and the Sixers should probably just take what they can get.