Report: Celtics aggressive in pre-Draft trade talks, talking to team in top 10
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Armed with a plethora of draft picks and a young team that exceeded expectations, few teams are as prepared to make a draft night splash quite like the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics have been rumored to move up in the first round all month, and those whispers grew louder on Tuesday, with general manager Danny Ainge even confirming reports.
Danny Ainge says, "We're having discussions to move up w/ both of our picks in the 1st round. We're hoping to move up w/ at least one."
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 23, 2015
The Celtics have engaged a team slotted to select in the top 10 in their trade talks, according to Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix. And it's not just this year's No. 16 and No. 28 picks, which Boston owns, that are on the table.
"Two executives who have spoken to Boston's front office say no one is untouchable on the roster," reports Mannix.
The Celtics stunned the Eastern Conference with a 40-win campaign that netted them a top-seven seed despite trading Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green mid-season and they'll have maximum-level cap space this summer, but the team is devoid of a surefire, franchise-level talent, so they'll need to continue to think big when it comes to maximizing their wealth of assets.
Whether that means potentially jumping into the reported DeMarcus Cousins sweepstakes or simply using their additional picks to move closer to the top of the draft, everything should be on the table come Thursday night in Brooklyn.
"We're always looking for quality over quantity," said Ainge, whose Celtics own as many as 14 extra picks over the next four drafts. "We have a lot (of) picks. We'd like to make fewer picks this year, next year and so forth."