Celtics' Danny Ainge On Trade Deadline: 'Nothing Really Excited Us'

The NBA trade deadline came and went yesterday without Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge making a single move -- which means at least for now, the C's four-man nucleus of Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen remains intact. But as Ainge revealed last night, not moving one of the Big Four wasn't for lack of trying.

"If there were an opportunity to improve our future, fast-forward the rebuilding process that would otherwise take much longer, we would do it," Ainge told Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News, presuambly referring to moving a veteran for younger pieces. "But nothing really excited us. There were deals we wanted to do and couldn’t find any takers, and deals other teams wanted us to do that we weren’t interested in."

Pierce and Allen were both rumored as potential solutions to the L.A. Clippers' opening at shooting guard, which was instead filled by Nick Young. Rondo was reportedly being shopped all season to a number of teams. In the end, the normally aggressive Ainge chose to do nothing. He's now set to watch the contracts of Garnett and Allen expire this summer.

Ainge did say that he's looking to add one more piece for the stretch run, which means he'll be watching the buyout market closely over the next week.