The Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge was recently interviewed by Toucher and Rich of 98.5 the Sports Hub.

Right away, Toucher and Rich asked him the million dollar question of: how do you explain the current state of the Celtics?

“It’s hard to explain”, Ainge stated. “The intensity level hasn’t been there, we’re not playing well. We’re not playing hard consistently. We have good stretches in most games, with the exception of last night, we didn’t have any good stretches until the game was over.” Ainge was referring to the Celtics 127-112 loss vs Atlanta on Wednesday, February 24th. Just when you thought the team couldn’t get any lower after their losses to New Orleans and Dallas, they allowed Atlanta to go nuclear and score 23 3 pointers. This loss marked the most 3 pointers allowed in a game in Celtics history.

“I wish I had answers for you guys. I like all my players, and I think they all have great futures. I just think right now this team is in a major funk, and I don’t know why”, Ainge had stated.

With Boston and their extreme struggles these past few weeks, many point the finger to Ainge, due to not providing a complete enough team to compete for a title, after reaching to the Eastern Conference Finals in the bubble. Many fans, including me, had hoped that Ainge would have addressed their issues in that ECF series, and improve upon them. Instead, Boston had a rather quiet offseason, with the exception of losing Gordon Hayward to free agency, and adding Tristan Thompson & Jeff Teague to the roster. It may not have looked so at first, but Ainge’s lack of moves made has really cost Boston.

Others have pointed the finger at Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown. One of the Celtics play-by-play commentators, Mike Gorman, in an interview with Toucher and Rich, had told them that he believes Tatum and Brown are becoming “ball stoppers”. In basketball culture, a “ball stopper” is someone who plays like a superstar, but isn’t actually one, and cares more about individual stats. Someone who doesn’t really make their team better. Gorman had said what some fans & analysts have often thought about those two. When asked by Toucher and Rich if Ainge believes Tatum and Brown are indeed those types of players, this was his response:

“I think I would say it differently. I think that at times, it’s unfair to say that they’re ball stoppers. But here’s the thing about Jayson and Jaylen: they’ve been shielded, and had other stars and veterans around them in the past. Now it’s on them. The microscope is on them. We run a lot of things for them, but these guys want to win. Both of them are great competitors, they’ve proven that in their first 4 years of their career, they want to win.”

Ainge then compared former NBA players to how Jayson and Jaylen often play.

“I think it is a fair assessment that we do stop the ball. Great players, like Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant, guys that these young players often idolize, they stopped the ball too. So I think that it’s a little UNFAIR to just hold the ball stoppage on them, but I understand it, and I think they will get better at it. It’s part of the development and growth of young star players. As we know, Michael Jordan got the brunt of it when he was a young player, LeBron even when he was a young player, Kobe too, so, this isn’t out of the ordinary for young star players to get the brunt of the team’s losing”.

Toucher and Rich then directed their attention the supporting cast around Tatum and Brown, and how “far the team should fall” for Ainge to decide whether or not they are worth making a move for this season. Here is Ainge’s response:

“These are good questions. I think those are legitimate questions that I don’t have the answers to right now. But I will say, this is a me problem. I do think this is a very strange time, especially in the NBA. But we’re playing terribly, we don’t have a good enough team (in my opinion). Winning is what we’re expected to do in Boston. We’re expected to win, put up championships, win playoff games, and that’s what we’re still hoping to do this year. We’ll see if we can make any changes. Like I said I’m not looking to do something for the sake of doing something, but I am looking to do something that can make a difference to our team”.

There is also a growing notion that the team’s players are tuning out their coach, Brad Stevens. Ainge debunked that theory, and even addressed how successful and bought in his players were to Brad Stevens in the past. Here is what Ainge had to say:

“Even if a player was, that’s just his way of coping. I’ve been amazed at how great of defensive teams we have been in the Brad Stevens era. With Isaiah Thomas as your Point Guard, with Kemba Walker as your Point Guard, Gordon Hayward as a Power Forward, Daniel Theis as your Center, you know we’ve been a top 3 defensive team in the league, that’s amazing. That is commitment to winning, that is a team playing with confidence and intensity night in and night out, to being able to do that undersized. It’s obviously not in our game plan, it’s not in our strategy, so when I hear a player or coach being tuned out, that usually when it is a coach just screaming and doing nothing. And that’s definitely not the case”.

The last question directed to Ainge was regarding Boston’s plans for the trade exception that they possess from Gordon Hayward’s departure to Charlotte. He stated that it is “more than likely” that is will be used in the offseason, but, “if the right deal was on the table right now we’d use it.” Ainge is more focused on making the right deal rather than any deal, and that most of the time the best deals are available in the offseason.

As we stand, Boston sits 16-17 in the Eastern conference as the 7th seed. There is a 1 game lead in between the 4 and 10 seed in the East, so Boston may still be fortunate enough that they have not totally hit rock bottom.