In the wake of the recent rumors surrounding Anthony Davis as well as Kyrie Irving, there’s a lot of uncertainty in regards to the Boston Celtics’ near future. In this story, you take the role of Danny Ainge and have to waft through the waters until July 1st, where you hope to acquire Anthony Davis, or re-sign Kyrie Irving, or both.

Author’s Note: In this tale you take on the role of Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge, currently in the midst of another rumor-fueled NBA trade deadline season. Kyrie Irving has recently made comments that renege on his promise to fans earlier this season to re-sign with Boston, more people from the Anthony Davis camp continue to say Davis wouldn’t stay with the Celtics long-term, and the team still has a playoff run to think about this year, as they sit fourth in the East.

Each slide tells a piece of our story, and at the end of every slide you will have to make a choice. These choices all lead to unique consequences that will affect the Celtics moving forward. Note that this exercise is by no means exhaustive, it’s meant to entertain and casually inform about possible options for Ainge while also just being a fun story to play through. Some scenarios may be overdramatized, but everything listed is definitely a realistic possibility by the Collective Bargaining Agreement and general NBA rules.

The options presented to you at the end of each slide will all end with a linked blue word, you must click on it to continue on to that slide. This process will continue as you weave through the story you create through your choices, until you finally reach the end of your path, and from there, you can go backwards, retrace your steps, and try again.

Have fun!

It’s February 2nd. For those that still watch cable news, they’ll get to see Punxsutawney Phil and his maybe-maybe-not shadow. Twitter users will surely see references to the Bill Murray classic sprinkled on their timelines. But you’re Danny Ainge, GM and President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, and unlike Phil Connors, you won’t be able to do this day over again.

The past few days haven’t yielded the greatest news for your team. There are continued reports that Anthony Davis wants to go to Los Angeles to play with LeBron James, and that any other team that trades for him would be getting a pure rental. Davis’ team cited their doubt of Kyrie Irving re-signing in Boston as one of his main motivations for not committing long-term to the franchise.

And if that wasn’t great enough, two days ago Kristaps Porzingis was traded to the Mavericks, leaving the Knicks with enough cap space to sign two max players this offseason. Kyrie and Kevin Durant are the main names floating around for those spots.

At the time you weren’t worried, as Irving had a chance to squash such rumors the next day in Madison Square Garden against New York. He had already promised he’d re-sign in Boston. He even made a commercial imagining the day his jersey hung up in the rafters at TD Garden. He couldn’t let you down, right?

“Ask me July 1st,” he said yesterday. Not exactly the same tune as before. But you barely had time to breathe yesterday before the next bad news, as a few hours later reports came that Anthony Davis’ father stated that he personally wouldn’t want his son in Boston, citing loyalty issues. That’s what you get for trading IT after he played his heart and hip out for you, even if it did make business sense.

Luckily, the main media guys are still on your side. Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania reported details of the Lakers’ current negotiations with the Pelicans last night, and it seems like there are none. Magic Johnson’s first offer reportedly contained Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Rajon Rondo, Michael Beasley and a first-round pick. Finally some news that benefits us!

You decide that you want to really make your voice heard. While eating your daily Chipotle, you consider leaking out potential trade pieces this summer to Woj – pieces that definitely beat out what the Lakers were offering. While you can’t officially trade for Davis yet due to the Rose rule, which disallows teams from trading for two players under the designated player extension (and Kyrie already is), there’s nothing stopping you from stirring the pot for now with names. When Kyrie opts out of his contract and becomes a free agent July 1st, you can trade for Davis then re-sign Irving.

If you can convince the league that you have an unbeatable offer for Davis, you may be the one who forces the Pelicans’ hand, making them wait until the summer for what they know to be the best offer. Then you re-sign Kyrie, kick butts and take names next year, and Davis is convinced to stay in Boston. The perfect plan.

You have to be careful here, though. If you promise players that you eventually put off the table, it may disrupt trade talks and ruin your chances this summer. If you list undesirable guys, the Pelicans might not think it’s worth waiting until the summer and pull the trigger on a deal now. Not to mention, you may hurt team morale with such rumors. Perhaps you shouldn’t meddle with the media this time…

If you choose to leak a potential summer trade offer to the media, click here.

If you choose to stay out of media talks until the trade deadline, click here.