With the Celtics' disappointing 2020-21 season coming to an end Tuesday night, attention has quickly shifted to the offseason and whether or not there will be any major shakeups.
Well, here's one that could be coming that would certainly qualify. According to Shams Charania, Brad Stevens is expected to take over as the team's head of basketball operations, while Danny Ainge is resigning.
Ainge was hired as the Celtics' executive director of basketball operations in 2003 and was promoted to president of basketball operations in 2008 after building the team that won the NBA title that season by trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
Since the end of the modern "Big 3" era, Ainge has rebuilt the Celtics into a team that reached the Eastern Conference finals three times in four years from 2017-2020, with his draft picks of Jaylen Brown in 2016 and Jayson Tatum in 2017 setting a promising foundation.
Other big moves recently have not worked out as planned, though, with the Kyrie Irving experiment ending in failure. Kemba Walker, the player the Celtics signed to a max deal to replace him, has seen his Boston tenure derailed by injuries to the point where Walker and his contract are widely viewed as untradeable. The Celtics were also unable to adequately replace Gordon Hayward after he opted out of his contract and signed with Charlotte last offseason.
According to Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix, if Ainge does leave the Celtics, he is not expected to retire and would instead be looking for opportunities elsewhere.
The Athletic's Jared Weiss reports that public criticism from Ainge and team governor Wyc Grousbeck "may have strained Celtics’ on-court chemistry as a roster depleted by health struggled mightily."