And he has a clear head about it now. He will not let the current C's die on the vine because of loyalty to veterans or because owners want the last eggs from the green and golden marketing goose. But he won't euthanize a group with game either.

Danny Ainge is not a doctor, but he's taken the Hippocratic oath: First do no harm.

``I understand the point, and it's valid,'' he said of the need to heed the old lessons. ``But the circumstances were different before, which is a good thing for this team. In my opinion, our team back then was not capable of being an elite team with the injuries that were happening to Larry (Bird) and Kevin. I thought they were still good players, but they were fighting injuries, and Robert (Parish) and D.J. (Dennis Johnson) were getting old. I just didn't think that team was capable of contending for a championship at that point.

``The difference now is that I think this team is there. Maybe this team won't be there in two years and we have to make considerations toward retooling. I definitely don't want to just sit here and get old and be the ninth- or 10th-best team in the league.

``If we don't feel like we're serious contenders for an NBA championship, then we have to consider altering our path. But I don't think we're at that point yet.''

True enough, the Celtics posted the third-best record in the league last season and expect to add a healthy Kevin Garnett to a team that went seven games with Orlando. But when you understand how much Ainge loves Rajon Rondo, the fact he's willing to even talk about him with other GMs shows he's taking nothing for granted.

``I'm definitely the now,'' he said. ``I don't want to jeopardize the now. But it would be nice to add balance to the future if it doesn't take away from the now.'' Those old Celtics seemed paralyzed by the thought of change. Even after McHale played on a broken foot in the 1987 playoffs, they had a chance to trade him to Dallas (with Johnson and trimmings) for a package that would have included Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf and a high pick.

``Personally at that time, it was difficult,'' said Ainge, who was eventually dealt with Brad Lohaus to Sacramento for Ed Pinckney and Joe Kleine in February 1989. ``I think that Red (Auerbach) didn't want to trade Larry and Kevin. He wanted them to retire as Celtics . I respect that and I understand that. I just think that you had to make some tough decisions if you wanted to have a chance to keep winning. They decided to go in a certain direction.

``I just think it was a tough time for the Celtics ,'' Ainge said. ``Obviously Len Bias could have solved all the problems, but that didn't work out and the team had to make tough choices later on. I think that trading me or trading Larry or trading Kevin or trading Chief or D.J. probably would have been better as far as maintaining the chance to win. I just thought there was no reason to kind of keep the team together once it got to the point where you knew it wasn't going to be able to work because of the injuries and all that.

``I think that Kevin and I were both proven right. That team really didn't have a chance after 1989.''

In fact, after getting to the conference finals on one leg in 1988, the Celtics won just two playoff series over the next 13 years. You get the feeling Ainge won't hesitate to use the scalpel if he sees that coming.

- sbulpett@bostonherald.com