Celtics trade deadline preview: How Boston can make it back into Eastern Conference's top tier

The Celtics have run out of spare draft picks

Danny Ainge is in uncharted waters this season, at least relative to the position he's used to leading the Boston Celtics from. For the first time since 2013, the Celtics are pick-neutral in the first round. Typically, that term describes teams that have long-owed first-round picks to other teams and are finally escaping draft purgatory. Boston's situation is unique. For almost a decade, the Celtics were the asset kings of the NBA. They owned one of the most impressive collections of picks acquired from other teams in NBA history, and on some level, they squandered it. The Celtics do not own a single first-round pick from an opposing team now. Their war chest has been emptied.  What do they have to show for it? Two stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, yes, but hardly the superteam that was supposed to flank them. No third star has emerged from their draft surplus. Their big trade expenditure, Kyrie Irving, bolted out of town at his first chance, and free-agent splashes Al Horford and Gordon Hayward followed.  It puts the Celtics in the same position as their competition. For the first time of that Tatum-Brown era, their decisions have consequences. They can't afford to offer four first-rounders for Justise Winslow anymore because there isn't an endless supply of picks available to correct such mistakes. They have to be careful, but they also have to be aggressive. The team they have right now, in all likelihood, is not enough to win the 2021 championship, and without a meaningful upgrade somewhere, might not be good enough to do so in 2022 or 2023 either. Here's how they could go about changing that.