When the Boston Celtics did not make a trade during Thursday night’s draft and instead selected former Oklahoma State Cowboys’ point guard Marcus Smart and former Kentucky Wildcats’ swingman James Young, it looked like the Celtics’ pursuit of a superstar could be coming to an end.
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That, however, is not the case.
Not only do the Celtics seem set on keeping point guard Rajon Rondo, but according to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald, the Celtics are still pursuing a star.
"But, barring an unexpected offer for Rondo the Celtics cannot refuse, expect this entire process to take some time. That’s because a.) the Celts have not abandoned hope of finding a high quality player (and it could still be Love at some point next season) to pair with their All-Star point guard, and, b.) to increase his value, they likely need to get him back on the floor to show how much better he can be as he puts his knee surgery further into the rearview mirror.The Celtics’ first choice in all this is to keep Rondo and find better players to put around him, but if they are unable to do that, they will have to confront the issue of his impending free agency. The club went into its rebuild with last summer’s trade of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett knowing it had to show a clear path to again being a contender before Rondo could depart on his own in 2015."
The Celtics still own future picks and could deal their young players, making them a team worth keeping an eye on.