As one of the best offensive players in the game, James Harden is a guy who can easily change the standing of any NBA franchise.
For the Boston Celtics, his arrival could have really put them over the edge of title contention — but, apparently, they just weren’t able to make enough traction before the deal went through.
In a chat with the media, Celtics President Danny Ainge confirmed his team’s involvement in the closing hours of talks:
“Yeah, we had conversations regarding James, not recently but yeah, we did have conversations,” Ainge said, via SLAM. “We (Celtics) had numerous talks, but the price really wasn’t changing. The price was really high for us, and it was something we really didn’t want to do… I think unanimously, we decided it wasn’t time for us and it wasn’t the price.”
In any trade for a star, the Celtics would have to give up at least one member of their precious young tandem: Jayson Tatum or Jalen Brown.
Clearly, the price to get Harden was just too high for the Celtics, and they decided to pull out and continue with the status quo. So far, the Celtics are 8-4 in the East and remain a pesky, competitive squad.
It’s hard to argue the future isn’t in their two young guns, and it’s really no wonder why they were so unwilling to include them n a trade, even if it was for a guy as good as James Harden…
