Ainge said he has loyalty to his roster and is willing to give his veterans more than this brief window to prove themselves, but he won’t allow them to age and decline drastically the way Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish did in the early 1990s.
“First of all, it’s a different era,’’ said Ainge. “I sat with Red [Auerbach] during a Christmas party [20 years ago]. Red was talking to Larry, Kevin, and myself, and there was a lot of trade discussion at the time, and Red actually shared some of the trade discussions. And I told Red, ‘What are you doing? Why are you waiting?’
“He had a chance to trade Larry [to Indiana] for Chuck Person and Herb Williams and [Steve] Stipanovich, and he had a chance to trade Kevin [to Dallas] for Detlef Schrempf and Sam Perkins. I was, like, ‘Are you kidding?’
“I mean, I feel that way now. If I were presented with those kinds of deals for our aging veterans, it’s a done deal, to continue the success.
“After those guys retired, the Celtics had a long drought. But those things aren’t presenting themselves. In today’s day and age, with 30 teams in the NBA, 15 teams know they have no chance of winning a championship. They are building with young players.
“It’s a different era that we live in. It’s easy to say conceptually but you have to always weigh what are real opportunities.’’
The Celtics began the season with a three-game losing streak, won four in a row against inferior competition, and then lost five straight against playoff-caliber teams.
“I think there’s no excuses, because every team has had the same training camp, but we weren’t prepared,’’ said Ainge. “We haven’t been prepared mentally, physically to win.
“I don’t have the answers as to why, but it obviously hurt not having Paul for training camp or the first three games. I think Paul’s been trying to find himself.
