Boston Celtics Co-Owner Wants to Keep Core of Team Intact

After the Boston Celtics were booted out of the Playoffs, it seemed inevitable that major roster changes were on the horizon. Rumors swirled about Paul Pierce preparing to leave town, and no one knows what Kevin Garnett’s plans for the future are. For what it’s worth, Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck says he’d like to keep the Pierce-Garnett-Rajon Rondo core together, and just get them some much-needed help. Per 98.5 The Sports Hub, via ESPN: “We don’t feel like we have a championship team [at the moment]; It’s pretty obvious, we lost in the first round,’ said Grousbeck. ‘We have to see who is with us, we have to see what offers there are for people, we’ve got to decide what to do. It might be a multi-year plan. We’ve never intentionally lost games and we don’t intend to trash things now. We’ve got players — [Rajon] Rondo, [Avery] Bradley, [Jeff] Green, [Jared] Sullinger, Brandon Bass, the younger guys are not going to let us win the lottery anyway. That’s a good roster. We hope that Paul [Pierce] and [Kevin Garnett] are back with them and we hope we can reload along the way. I don’t know what will happen, I’ll know more about the plan in early July. At the moment, we just have to see what the options are.’ Grousbeck gave a bit of a behind-the-scenes glimpse, noting that management and the front-office staff huddled this week to gauge the direction of the team. He stressed that Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will examine the trade and free-agent markets and that the team likely won’t make any firm decisions until late June when it knows all the potential options. […] Grousbeck deferred to Ainge on questions about trades, but hinted late in the 15-minute interview that he wants to keep the core together, so long as there’s a way to supplement them beyond the return of Rondo and (Jared) Sullinger from injuries. ‘I want to retire Paul’s number, but I don’t want to do it any time soon because I want him to keep playing for us, to be honest,’ said Grousbeck. ‘I want KG back. I want Doc (Rivers) back. I’d love to have Rondo back. I just want to get them more help, that’s my going-in assumption.'”