BOSTON — There could come a time when Danny Ainge’s trading of Jeff Green three years ago will be hailed as another of his celebrated capers, with the Memphis Grizzlies added to the roll call of the hoodwinked.
Every personnel move made by Ainge, the Boston Celtics’ homegrown general manager, seems to produce a victory smoke ring above the grave site of Red Auerbach, the franchise patriarch. Auerbach established the precedent of Celtics larceny in 1956 when he traded Cliff Hagan and Ed McCauley to the St. Louis Hawks for a fellow named William Felton Russell.
Let’s not argue that the Green trade actually backfired on Ainge when the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Celtics, 87-79, on Sunday night at TD Garden to move on to the N.