When Boston was down 0-2 after losing both games at the Garden, there was a lot of trolling on Celtics fans about how they should have traded for the man that had helped put them in that hole: Jimmy Butler. And with former Celtic Rajon Rondo torching the team on the same parquet floor that he raised a banner over, the NBA playoffs turned into some sort of dystopian version of the Dickens novel where the ghosts of Christmas past and future visit in the first round of the playoffs.
And while it’s fun to play armchair GM, consider the what if’s of the past, and plan for the future, the Celtics are dealing in the now.