01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 29, 2006

BY SHALISE MANZA YOUNG
Journal Sports Writer

WALTHAM, Mass. -- The Boston Celtics' draft party became a trade party last night, and then went back to being a draft party once again as director of basketball operations Danny Ainge had a busy night on the phones.

A deal that had been in the works for a couple of weeks came to fruition a few hours before the draft as the Celts got young point guard Sebastian Telfair, veteran (but often-injured) center-forward Theo Ratliff and a second-round pick in 2008 from the Portland Trail Blazers for Boston's No. 7 pick last night, center-forward Raef LaFrentz and point guard Dan Dickau.

And just minutes after head coach Doc Rivers had told the assembled media that his team might get back into the draft -- Boston originally had just the No. 7 selection and no second-round choices -- commissioner David Stern was announcing that the Celts had gotten Phoenix' pick at No. 21 and aging forward Brian Grant, whose contract they are basically taking off Phoenix' hands.

Boston gave the Suns a first-round pick in next year's draft, the pick the Celts got from Cleveland in the Jiri Welsch deal.

With UConn point guard Marcus Williams still on the board, the Suns chose speedy-but-shooting-challenged Kentucky point guard Rajon Rondo at that spot.

And later in the night, the team acquired Cal forward Leon Powe from Denver, which took him 49th overall. Boston gave the Nuggets one of its many future second-round picks.

Able to get a young but experienced player as well as two draft picks -- an area where he has excelled in the past -- Ainge was happy with the day's events.

"I think it was a great night," he said. "If you would have told me at the beginning of the day that we'd be as fortunate as we were today, I would have been very happy. We got two terrific young players and did some cap management at the same time."

But while he expressed a contentment with each of the men on his roster as of this morning, Ainge assured "we're not done" making moves.

Listed at 6-foot, 168 pounds, Telfair, the half-brother of former Providence College standout Jamel Thomas and a cousin of the Knicks' Stephon Marbury, comes to Boston as a work in progress. He was the first point guard to bypass college and turn pro directly out of high school, after leading Abraham Lincoln High in Brooklyn to three N.Y. Public School Athletic League titles, and many questioned if he was ready for that jump.

Telfair played 68 games in each of his first two seasons with Portland, averaging 9.5 points, 3.6 assists, 1.8 rebounds and around that same number of turnovers per game. He missed 12 games last season with sprained ligaments in his right thumb.

Boston head coach Doc Rivers said he has followed Telfair for quite some time.

"We like a lot of the things that he can do. We love his speed," Rivers said. "We think the way the league is officiated now, that the small guard has an impact again because you can't do much of the touching; I think you saw that in the playoffs.

"And he has great vision. He can see, he can get the guys shots when they are open, and I think that will help our basketball team."

Ainge, who was not able to address the media until around 11:30 p.m., after the trade with Phoenix was finalized, echoed Rivers' thoughts.

"We think that (Telfair) is probably the most ready of all the young point guards that were in the draft. He's the same age as most of those guys and he's got 1,500 or 1,600 minutes under his belt," he said.

But Ainge emphatically stated that current point guard Delonte West does not have to worry about his status with the acquisitions of Telfair and Rondo.

"This in no way diminishes who we think Delonte is -- we think he is a great player," Ainge said, noting that teams like Chicago, and NBA Finals squads Dallas and Miami played with two and even three points on the floor at the same time with much success.

"To us, the more decision-makers you have on the floor, the better your team will be," he said.

Known more as a slasher than a scorer, Telfair said he has no problem coming off the bench.

"Whatever position coach puts me in, that's the position I am going to take. I'm going to work hard to be a starter, of course, that's one of my goals, but whatever its going to be to win some games," he said. "My style of play is uptempo. We've got some good players over there so I can help make them a little better and get them open shots for Paul (Pierce), Wally (Szczerbiak) and the rest of the guys."

Getting LaFrentz's monster contract off the books was a big part of the transaction for Boston. While Ratliff makes as much as LaFrentz -- $11.66 million this season to $10.9 million for LaFrentz -- Ratliff's contract comes off the books after the 2007-08 season while LaFrentz's goes to 2008-09. Also, Ratliff, when he's healthy, is the post presence LaFrentz never was.

"I've seen that firsthand," Telfair said of Ratliff on a conference call. "When he was injured, we played one way, but when he was on the floor, that's when we started to win some games."

Ratliff, 33, has played 11 seasons for four different teams and has career averages of 8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game. However, he played just 55 games last year and 63 the season before.

Rondo spent two years at Kentucky and had an SEC-best 4.9 assists per game last season.

"We had him rated very, very high, and when we saw he was still available at 15, 16, we started exploring opportunities to get him," Ainge said in explaining how the Rondo trade came about.

Grant is on the books for just $1.8 million this year; it's unlikely he'll be on the roster once the season starts.

smanza@projo.com / (401) 277-7340