The weeks leading to last month’s trade deadline was filled with a lot of trade rumors involving some of the league’s biggest stars. Two of them were Chicago Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler and Indiana Pacers forward Paul George, who were both linked to the Boston Celtics.
While Danny Ainge and company did not make any last-second moves, many believed at one point during the trade deadline that they were at the brink of adding the two to their fold, including Cleveland Cavaliers GM David Griffin.
The veteran front office executive recently made a podcast appearance with ESPN’s Zach Lowe and revealed that he and his team were anticipating the Celtics to make a huge move. He also shared what they felt during that time.
“I don’t think it was just Jimmy. There was a moment there where I thought they were getting Paul George and Jimmy Butler, and that was concerning.”
“That would be concerning. I mean, we don’t get to play anybody else’s cards, right? So spending a lot of time worrying about it doesn’t make sense. But certainly we were paying attention. Toronto [Raptors] obviously made some moves to get much better and our conference has been I think quietly getting better on a steady increase since we got there. So I think we were concerned with the whole conference.”
The Celtics’ decision to stand pat surprised a lot of people as they have a lot of assets to offer other teams for their stars. However, they might have opted to just play with the cards they have and see how deep the team could go in the playoffs and possibly come up with a drastic move this summer.
It also serves the Cavs well as there will be no need for them to make adjustments to how they’ll play the Celtics. With only a few weeks left before the postseason starts, it will be very interesting to see if the gamble the C’s made will pay off and if their current lineup will be enough to dethrone the defending champions.