SALT LAKE CITY — The Celtics already have been quite active in their investigations as Thursday’s NBA trade deadline draws near, but, according to several league sources, the talk has yielded no serious leads.

It’s quite clear the club would like to make a major move, but in that such a transaction would require a major player being honestly available, the current outlook is dim.

And by “honestly,” we mean a team willing to talk realistically about a star player — not one looking to make a one-sided killing.

A Western source confirmed the Celtics were one of a number of teams calling the Clippers to see if Blake Griffin is, indeed, on the menu. But the result of those inquiries has thus far been that, while the Clips are listening, they have no real intention of moving the star forward.

The Celts seem to be approaching this week with an opportunistic eye. They have the goods to make a large trade, but with a big draft haul on the way, they can also afford to be patient and make their moves in the offseason.

Asked his goals for this deadline, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge told the Herald, “To help our team become better — not short-term better, but short- and long-term better. And not at the expense of wrecking our future.”

While refusing to get into specifics, his comments clearly would seem to take the Celtics out of the running for any player who might be considered a “rental” — someone late in a contract who may command more on the open market in a year or two than the club is willing to pay.

And though the Celts may be left with a minor move that can bolster the rotation or adds to their flexibility down the line, Ainge is still focused on the larger picture.

“When I’m looking at players out there, I’m looking at players that can make a big difference,” he said, “not players that can win us two games or anything like that. That’s not my objective.

“Our objective is not to keep us in the No. 3 seed in the East and maybe move up a bit, other than that’s our players’ objective and that’s our coaches’ objective. I think those are amazing goals, and it’s been fun watching this team compete and beating some of the good teams along the way. But our objective is to put together a team that can compete for championships.

“Listen, we’re just a few games from being at seven or eight, and it wasn’t too long ago that we were the ninth seed in the East. So, no, I don’t pay that much attention to the standings. I look more at how we’re playing and where our holes are and what we need to do.”

The question will be how high a price Ainge will be willing to pay if a star comes on the market. He got aggressive in his bidding to move up in the draft to select Justise Winslow, taking it to the point where some believed he was offering too much in the draft pick/player combination.

“I’m not going to confirm or deny anything that happened on draft day,” said Ainge. “But for what was being discussed, I have no regrets.”

And he is not concerned that things will get out of hand now, with the huge chest of assets in his possession.

“I feel like we have a pretty good group of people here that I work with,” Ainge said. “We have checks and balances. It’s balancing the here and now and also balancing the future.

“Coaches live in the moment, and I understand that. I’ve been a coach. I get it. But we also have other people on our staff that are so protective of our future.

“We’re trying to do both. We’re trying to win for the current players and the current coaches and fans, and yet we also have to be wise about how we go about it and not jeopardize our future. We want to be able to sustain things.”

In other words, you probably shouldn’t worry about the Celtics spending this year’s first-round pick from Brooklyn on anything less than a cornerstone player.