Rozier was drafted so that Ainge could trade Isaiah Thomas further down the road.
Could be, but Thomas is the win now type of player and Ainge has liked him for a while risking valuable draft position trading for him last year.
However if we don't become legit contenders in the next year or 2 I could see Ainge trading Thomas when Rozier is more ready.
Thomas is a good but not great player on a great contract. He's one of the few guys we have who'd make a very useful piece in acquiring a great player. I'm sure we'd be happy to keep him if we can but realistically he's more likely to be shipped off if we have a chance to make the big deal we're angling toward.
True, but if we use IT (and picks or whatever) to acquire a great player, we don't really have any "good" players left. All of us would trade him in addition to our entire team for a super-star, but the chances of that are ridiculously slim.
Unless that perfect storm kick-ass deal comes along, I'd rather see Ainge try to package some guys and upgrade a starting position(s) to help out IT and Lee.
I'd rather have a foundation of good players than go all in and end up with an all-star, but no real other decent players.
I think that's much more likely to attract a big name (which is truly the name of the game).
As far as "realistic scenarios" go, I have no clue why you think doing nothing with IT is so much more less likely than suddenly stumbling across that "big deal we've been angling toward."
A slow but steady rebuilding scenario is much more realistic in my opinion than another random/crazy aligning of the stars like with KG and Ray.
Bottom line is, trading IT (and whatevevr) for a Joe Johnson type player would set us back eons.