Are we looking at a second summer without fireworks?

Every so often, someone notable somewhere says something that they’ll never be able to shake… or at least won’t be able to shake for a while.

For Wyc Grousbeck, it was last July’s promise of fireworks that never materialized. Until we finally get some fireworks around here, we’re going to keep bringing it up. And it’s possible we might be bringing it up for a while.

The Celtics canvassed the league last year looking for a team willing to give up a disgruntled star, but there were none available, and there are not likely to be many available this summer, either. They might pursue, say, DeMarcus Cousins or Chandler Parsons should the Kings or Mavericks begin a deconstruction, but it is unlikely either of those guys gets moved in the end. One of the consequences of the coming salary cap explosion is that teams that might otherwise be wringing their hands over a potential luxury tax hit — the Warriors, Bulls, Clippers and Thunder, for instance — figure to be more willing to absorb the blow with knowledge that it’s a one-year indulgence. So players that might otherwise be on the market — Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler, DeAndre Jordan, Enes Kanter, etc. — aren’t likely to leave their current teams, nor are those teams finding it necessary to trade players to clear space to keep them. The Celtics have cap space available and Danny Ainge will continue to burn up phone lines trying to find a feature player, but don’t expect him to come up with anything just yet.

Ouch.

That’s not the kind of inside scoop we want to hear, but Sean Deveney makes sense with this assessment. Is any team out there in a “Man we need to trade this guy now or we’re screwed” scenario? The only possible situation I see would be LaMarcus Aldridge if he had a change of heart in Portland and wanted out. He could agree to terms and work out a sign-and-trade.

I don’t see any of those teams letting free agents go… with the possible exception of Chicago being SO stingy that they won’t go over the top for Butler. But that’s just a guess based on their past history of shrewdness. They can’t be that dumb, though.

But that’s why Danny Ainge gets the big bucks… turn reports like this on their head and convince bad GM’s who mysteriously keep their jobs to do something stupid.