Here's a longshot opinion - Danny refused to give up Tatum because Tatum is Kyrie's best friend on the team and he sees himself as LeBron to Tatum's Kyrie on the Celtics and Tatum's presence on the Celtics is key to Kyrie returning.
After all, Kyrie did say this back in March:
“What me and Jay talk about, we’re six years apart and I try to tell him, I’m like look, I’m a liaison between all of this," Irving said. “I want you to be -- whatever you need me to do, I’ll get out the way once you get to that point, like, go ahead. Like, if you want it, go take it, and I tell Jay as well, me and you in this, going for the guts and glory when it’s all on the line, I know I need you right next to me, so, let’s get this thing going. I have a different relationship with all my teammates but specifically with him, how special he is, yeah.”
https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2019/03/kyrie-irving-on-playing-with-jayson-tatum-i-know-i-need-you-right-next-to-me.html
They both went to Duke, they both hung out together in the Bahamas last year, they've been seen together in public. Kyrie wants his own team of players that will listen to him. His ego won't let him go crawling to the Lakers or somewhere else where he would be the 2nd banana. Tatum would be the clear Robin to his Batman.
But not all the young players on the Celtics looked up to him or necessarily listened to him in year 2 - they did in year 1, but then he got injured, they made it to the ECF, they thought they knew it all. Remember Jaylen Brown saying
he was going to have five championships by age 28 before the season started? And Kyrie and Jaylen had many public blowups on court. As for Terry the tensions between him and Kyrie (not at a personal level as I think they got on fine personally but frustrations because Kyrie was in front of him in the pecking order) became really clear with Terry's burn-the-bridges media tour after the season.
So maybe Ainge tried to ship out Jaylen and won't match any offers for Rozier, to clear the path for Uncle Drew to return? Then they try to find some more players to complement his style of play?
It's a longshot, given all the media speculation is going the other way but hey it's at least plausible, right? Media have been wrong before
