For a lot of NBA teams, there’s no such thing as an “untouchable” player, just players with really high price tags. Boston Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge has always been that sort of GM. In 2013, Ainge traded aging Celtics heroes Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, and the Celtics are still benefitting. Right now, Isaiah Thomas is probably the most beloved Boston hero not throwing footballs for the Patriots (and I’m not talking about Jimmy Garoppolo, no matter how handsome he may be). Boston would riot if Thomas was traded, but Ainge would probably still get rid of him in a heartbeat if the right offer came along; sentimentality is a weakness that Ainge doesn’t seem to possess.
On the most recent episode of Bob Ryan’s Boston Podcast, Jackie MacMullan of ESPN said that Ainge was shopping everybody last season (transcribed by CSNNE):
“Before the draft last year, Danny was trying to get two picks, not just Jaylen Brown,” MacMullan told Ryan. “He was on the phone with everybody from coast to coast, and he was offering everybody. That includes Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas, and anything else they needed to get where he wanted to go. There were no untouchables on that team last year.”
That was obviously before Thomas’ 2016-17 campaign in which he averaged an absurd 28.9 points per game and solidified himself as a Boston legend. Nevertheless, MacMullan believes that Boston has only one untouchable player, and it’s not Thomas:
“The only untouchable now I would say is Al Horford,” MacMullan said.
While this may seem strange, there’s a logic to it. The argument can be made that Horford, one of the (if not the) best playmaking centers in basketball is Boston’s most valuable player. The Celtics have the first overall draft pick this year, and if they don’t trade it, Markelle Fultz is going to be wearing green next year. That will leave the Celtics with Fultz, Thomas, Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier. That’s a lot of guards, and it seems likely that at least one will be traded (or let walk). That one could be Thomas, whom the Celtics would have to pay handsomely next offseason.
