There's been a lot of smoke surrounding Rajon Rondo, but Danny Ainge says the Celtics don't want to trade their young point guard.

AP photo / Charles Krupa

BOSTON – The NBA Draft is Thursday night and Celtics Nation will be watching to see what Boston general manager Danny Ainge will do.

Will he pull the trigger once again on a blockbuster trade before or during the draft that will make the Celtics deeper and stronger?

Or will the 2007-08 NBA executive of the year, with a championship-caliber team already in place, be content to wait for the 58th pick of the draft and going from there.

That scenario seems more likely. The Celtics believe that they would have won the NBA title this year if Kevin Garnett (knee) and Leon Powe (knee) had been healthy, so blowing up the team might not be the best move.

When Ainge put together the Big Three of Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen two seasons ago, the plan was to win a title within three years. They won it the first year and still have an excellent shot to win it next season, so Ainge will be the first one to tell you that trading any one of Boston's starting five players for a draft pick doesn't make a lot of sense.

"Our starting five has been the best team in basketball, when healthy," Ainge said.

"We've won 128 games in the last two years," Ainge added. "We won 66 games and the championship the year before and this year we won 62 and had major injuries. We're a championship contender, for sure, in the last few years and we feel like we're going to be better this year – we'll have a better team on the court."

While there are talented players in the draft, Ainge said that the cost of moving up in the draft for a top 10 pick would be too high.

"We've evaluated the entire draft from top to bottom. We're still in the process of identifying those players that we would take in our current position at 58 and then we're also exploring options of players that we really like that we might move up in the draft and what the price might be to move up in the draft, but I think that's unlikely. Moving up in the draft is going to be unlikely."

When questioned further about moving up, Ainge said, "I don't think it's a deep draft. We're not too anxious to do too much to move up in the draft."

So the Celtics will probably keep the pick, get healthy, try to re-sign free agents Glen Davis and Powe and pick up a veteran free agent or two. Ainge said that draft night will be boring for Celtics fans.

But then again, Ainge has a track record for making big moves during this time of year.

We have all heard the rumors by now; the biggest two involve the soon to be 34-year-old Allen and 23-year-old Rajon Rondo being dealt to Detroit for Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Rodney Stuckey or to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire, Leandro Barbosa and the 14th overall pick of the draft.

Detroit reportedly turned down that deal, and Ainge indicated that the Phoenix rumor was not true. On Wednesday it was rumored that the Celtics were interested in sending Rondo and Brian Scalabrine to Memphis for guard Mike Conley and swingman Rudy Gay.

"I'm not going to comment on which trade rumors are true and which ones aren't true, but it's amazing," said Ainge. "And I hope you can all maintain your integrity in this world of media that we live in. It doesn't seem that you have to have any source anymore. You can just write stuff and print stuff and things just come out of the air."

Another trade rumor involves the Celtics sending either Rondo or Kendrick Perkins to Memphis for the No. 2 pick, but Ainge said that the Celtics are not trading Rondo for a draft pick.

 "We love Rondo and Rondo is a player that we want to have on our team and he's a guy we want to move forward with," Ainge said yesterday on WEEI. "We would never want him to just go away. Next summer is a summer that probably is a summer where we'll have to make some financial decisions on Rondo if we don't come to a conclusion this summer."

In the unlikely event that the Celtics trade Perkins for the No. 2 pick, they would probably take Hasheem Thabeet, the 7-foot-3, 265-pound center out of UConn.

Thabeet projects to be a better center than Perkins. He's bigger and possesses similar coordination and footwork to be a force in the low post.

But the Celtics aren't looking to get younger, Ainge said.

"We have not made any effort to get any of the top picks," said Ainge. "We've had discussions. There is a big difference between seeing what the price may be and seeing what it would take to get a top pick, but we have not tried to get a top pick.

"I think they would deal them for the right price but we certainly aren't willing to pay the price it would take to get a top pick."

Because there might not be a player capable of making the Celtics roster at No. 58 in the draft, Ainge said that the Celtics would consider selling the pick to another team. Ainge said that most of the recent players drafted beyond the 49th pick, with the exception of San Antonio's Manu Ginobili (drafted 57th in 1999), and Minnesota's Ryan Gomes (drafted 50th by the Celtics in 2005), haven't had too much success in the NBA.

The Celtics are ready to win now so if the they do make a move on Thursday expect it to be for a veteran player and not for a high draft pick. They will also be shopping for a veteran, affordable free agent or two this offseason like a Drew Gooden, Chris Wilcox, or Rasheed Wallace, Ainge said, or perhaps trading for an all-star if the opportunity arises.

"I think that the free agent mid-level talent pool is fairly deep but based on our needs it may not be so deep for us," Ainge said. "We certainly are not going to go out and spend a mid-level exception on a point guard or on a wing player, although that's not impossible, probably more likely a bigger player, although there are some good wing players out there that are mid-level free agents that we'd be thrilled to get."

Only Ainge knows for sure what the Celtics will do.

"I think that we have an attractive place to play," Ainge said. "I think there are a lot of players that would love to come to Boston to play."

roblee@projo.com