Danny Ainge
Danny Ainge still likes the Celtics chances moving forward (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)

Was Danny Ainge, Celtics President and General Manager, concerned about the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2018 NBA trade deadline? Absolutely not. Like the Patriots when the team mantra is ‘Do your job’, the Celtics have been great with handling the media. Instead of worrying about what Cleveland, Ainge is focused on the future of the Boston Celtics. Boston is currently favorites to land in the NBA Finals.

In an interview with NBC Sports, Ainge did not offer up an opinion on Cleveland’s recent trade activity:

“No. No it didn’t really. We’d gotten a little bit of wind that they were making some big changes, without knowing the details of it, but, listen, we’ve got our own problems to worry about and we’re just taking care of the Boston Celtics.”

Boston wasn’t exactly quite. While they didn’t make a trade, they did bring in Greg Monroe on a buyout. The Gordon Hayward injury brought Monroe to Boston who is going to bring in a low post scorer and rebounder. Monroe adds depth to the Celtics front court that already includes Al Horford, Aron Baynes, Daniel Theis, and others. Ainge continues the interview by saying that he loves what he is seeing from his current crop of Celtics.

“Well, for sure there was an idea that we didn’t need to do anything. We really like this group of guys and obviously have been having success. We have a really good, young core group of guys, too, along with Al (Horford) and so we didn’t – we don’t really want to really make a mess out of that. But at the same time, you just never know when good players become available. And so we have to kick the tires. But I didn’t really feel a need to do much.”

Who’s the favorite in the Eastern Conference? That question still remains to be seen.