The Boston Celtics were stuck between the playoffs and the lottery for most of the 14-15 season and became a better team after trading away Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green.

"When we made the trades, we felt like we needed to move a different direction," said Danny Ainge. "We did anticipate we'd take a little bit of a step backwards. We got better as the season went on."

The Celtics will enter the 2015 offseason still wanting to make substantial changes to the roster.

"What we've tried to do is put ourselves in the game to have those options, have some opportunities to make big moves. So I guess if there's big moves we like, we do them," said Ainge. "If there are big moves we're not in love with, we hold out and wait."

Ainge also talked about how the Celtics had the assets to make trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in 2007, but were unable to do so in 2012 when James Harden became available.

"We want to stay in the game until we can do something significant," said Ainge.