The Boston Celtics attempted to trade for James Harden in 2012 but their offer wasn't sweet enough to outbid the Houston Rockets. Nevertheless, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge is confident his team will make the right moves this offseason.
It looks like the Boston Celtics are going to swing for the fences this coming summer, as general manager Danny Ainge confirmed that his team will be gunning for yet another big time transaction this offseason.
In an interview with Marc D'Amico of Celtics.com, Ainge discussed the team's future plans this offseason, including the possibility of bringing another star to join its young and talented core that exceeded everybody's expectation after making it in the postseason this year.
Despite trading away leading scorer Jeff Green and All-Star playmaker Rajon Rondo, the Celtics leaned on the brilliance of young head coach Brad Stevens and a group of young players to clinch the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
They might have been swept by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, but Ainge believed his team took a step forward towards its goal of becoming a championship contender again.
Ainge, who is the mastermind behind the 2007 blockbuster trade that helped them land Kevin Garnett, cleared that he won't have any second thought in pulling off another huge deal, as long as he knows his team would greatly benefit from it.
"What we've tried to do is put ourselves in the game to have those options, have some opportunities to make big moves. So I guess if there's big moves we like, we do them," Ainge told D'Amico. "If there are big moves we're not in love with, we hold out and wait."
Thanks to a series of trades (including the deal that sent Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in 2013) the past two seasons, the Celtics will have enough assets to work out a massive trade.
Ainge disclosed that the Celtics were in the running for James Harden in 2012, but the team didn't have much asset that would have pleased the Oklahoma City Thunder at that time.