WALTHAM, Mass. -- Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge acknowledged the need for patience and a little bit of luck during the rebuilding process, but as the Celtics embark on what could be a franchise-altering offseason, Ainge is clearly hopeful that long-awaited fireworks will fill the Boston sky this summer.
"We look forward to every offseason. This offseason is bigger," Ainge said Wednesday during an end-of-season news conference at the team's training facility. "My expectations are high this offseason. And yet I also know that it takes good fortune. We need the pingpong balls to bounce our way [at the draft lottery on May 17] to give us the best opportunity. Whether we use that pick or whether we trade that pick, and in free agency, we have opportunities. And that’s all we have.
"We have no guarantees of great things happening. We just have a lot of hope. And so we have a lot of work ahead of us, and we have to have Plan A through Z. Usually, it’s more A through G, but we have A through Z this year just to have an opportunity to upgrade our team."
The Celtics vaulted to 48 wins this season and competed for a top spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs before injuries nibbled at the team late in the year, causing Boston to slip to the fifth seed and contributing to a first-round playoff loss to the Atlanta Hawks. It's the second straight year that Boston has been eliminated in the opening round of the postseason.
Armed with eight picks in June's draft, including the Brooklyn Nets' lottery selection headlining three first-round picks, some intriguing young low-cost talent and salary-cap flexibility, Ainge knows there's potential for the Celtics to bring in the impact talent necessary to leap to true title contender.
"I think we had a fun year," Ainge said of Boston's 2015-16 campaign. "We didn’t accomplish what we wanted to accomplish. I was a little bit disappointed in the last couple games of the playoffs, but I thought it was a really fun year, a really exciting year. I enjoyed it and I think our fans enjoyed the spirit of our team. But we all want to be playing for more important things and go deeper in the playoffs and that’s what we’re still on a path to."
Asked if he sees shades of the 2007 offseason, when the Celtics traded a lottery pick for Ray Allen then acquired Kevin Garnett to yield a new Big Three, Ainge said, "I'm not sure we have a Paul Pierce on our roster. But I do think we have a lot more things to trade, a lot more [assets] to move."
The Celtics are hopeful that a young team with a core that currently includes All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder and Avery Bradley, along with a trusted young coach in 39-year-old Brad Stevens, can create a situation where elite free agents will desire to come to Boston.
The Celtics enter the offseason armed with tradable assets -- including $18 million in nonguaranteed salary -- that could help it start adding pieces on draft night, regardless of how the pingpong balls bounce on May 17. Adding talent in late June could help further persuade those who are intrigued by Boston's situation when free agency opens on July 1.
This year's unrestricted free-agent class is expected to be headlined by the likes of Kevin Durant, Al Horford and Hassan Whiteside.
"I think our team is attractive to some," Ainge said. "I think Boston and the tradition and the Celtics and their winning ways and our fan base and ownership group and sort of the chemistry that we have as an organization between coach, management and ownership, I think that we’re an attractive place for free agents. But, ultimately, free agents want to come to a place where they can win. Where they get paid. Where they get an opportunity to play their game.
"There’s many factors. And some places people want to be closer to the sun, closer to equator, and I think that there’s just a lot of factors. But I do think that we are and we will be attractive to some free agents."