Boston for all their praise is a giant mess too. And OKC is at the point where they are going to have to start moving young players or trading their picks just to be able to sign these picks.
I really think that maybe a Fox for Tatum or Brown then see if we can work a swap of ill fitting front court players with Indy would allow us to balance the roster and enter the competitive process.
I don't think we have the right pieces for Simmons right now.
Ainge got a lot of praise for lucking into the Brooklyn Nets pretty much giving him all of their picks for a good half decade in exchange for a bunch of players that made them worse but aside from that, the last three or so years of his tenure has left the Celtics roster a giant disaster.
Brown and Tatum could probably coexist if only they had a capable distributor on their roster but Ainge let Hayward walk two seasons ago and only went after score-first guards since drafting Tatum.
To their credit, they nailed two of the three high lotto picks they've had in the past ten years (with the other one being Marcus Smart, who's been incredibly vital to whatever success they have achieved) but since then, they've absolutely whiffed on almost all of their draft picks or traded ones who've gone on to become very good NBA players (they traded the picks that would go on to become Thybulle and Desmond Bane on draft day).
Kings fans were fighting hard to get the Kings to trade Barnes for Nesmith or Langford and a pick but neither of those dudes have looked like solid NBA players.
Ideally, the Celtics would be willing to trade one of their star wings for one of our guards and a pick package but I'm still not sure what Brad Stevens is trying to achieve with his roster. If we were really going for a blow it up trade, I'm sure they'd jump at a chance to pair Fox with both Tatum and Brown and they have enough volatility in terms of franchise stability that a first round pick two or three years down the line might end up being a lotto pick.
OKC's a weird situation too. People swore up and down that THIS summer would be the one where the Thunder made their big move and pushed their rebuild further along and yet here they are, sorta waiting around for the draft again after all those galaxy brained Presti deals with weird protections on lotto picks backfired (Houston wound up outtanking the Thunder and keeping their pick) and the Thunder only wound up with the 7th overall pick. Now they're facing down an avalanche of mid-value picks (most of the picks they traded for are only conveying because the teams they're coming from are making the playoffs and pushing those picks into the 15-20 range) while also probably being a bit too good to sneak into he top 4 pick range again unless they come up with a fake injury for Shai again. Also they traded the pick that would become Alperen Sengun for more future picks despite Sengun being better than what those future picks could ultimately before.
I'm not saying what either of these two teams is doing is wrong but their roads to success certainly aren't as clearcut as they seem despite garner nearly universal praise for some reason.
Meanwhile, the Cavs sorta floundered around for a while, stole Jarrett Allen from the Nets and had a franchise altering big man talent fall into their laps after also jumping in the lottery and are now a playoff team.