Danny Ainge is being pulled in two directions as tonight’s NBA draft nears.

He has to be calm and responsible as he tries to drive the Celtics toward a return to the league’s upper echelon. Yet he admits he’s very much a part of the “are we there yet” crowd.

The Celts indeed are pushing for major moves, though according to sources around the league, yesterday’s rumors were cause for much laughter both near and far.

“Hey, listen,” Ainge said, “we all want a faster turnaround, but we have to remain patient, and at the same time we have to try to make deals and get better more quickly if we can.

“You know, we don’t want to make any mistakes. We don’t want to give up on some of our good, young players, but for the right deals, we have to be willing to do what’s necessary and what we think is right.”

The Celts do possess a good number of assets. And if you’re a follower of the club, particularly one who purchases tickets and increases TV ratings, you’re among the assets.

That might come across as cheesy pandering, but it’s real. And it’s important to the product.

Said one Western Conference general manager, “You’re fortunate if you can work in a place like Boston. You can just do your job and not worry about anything else. You don’t have to worry that no one’s going to be at your next game if you trade your best player.”

As long as the Celtics are moving in the right direction, people will show up at the Garden. The franchise knows its revenue streams won’t dry out in a rebuilding phase, which allows Ainge and his staff to remake the roster in a manner that can last, not just move for a few quick-fix veterans who win you 5-15 more games and assure you’ll be spinning your wheels in the NBA’s middle earth for seasons to come.

You’d think that would be an easy choice, that GMs and owners would see the long-term benefits of building the right way and would weather the storms as required.

But there is occasional trade talk that involves one side saying, “We have to make a move. My owner’s on me. We can’t afford to be irrelevant.”

“Sure,” Ainge said. “I’ve heard those words come out of GMs’ mouths. But I guess that’s just part of it. I think that it’s pretty easy to tell which franchises are under fire . . . and I think that sort of starts with ownership.

“Having an ownership that believes in their coach and their general manager and that allows them to do their jobs I think is a big benefit for the long-term health of a franchise. Our ownership is in it. They know the big decisions that are going on and they have faith in us. That makes it more fun to work and it’s more conducive to a successful franchise.”

But it’s clearly easier to be patient and faithful when the club is on solid financial footing. The Celtics have slipped by about 1,000 per game from the full-season sellout in 2012-13, the final campaign with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. But they still outdrew the Hawks, Grizzlies and Pelicans and played to a greater percentage of capacity than two other playoff teams — Portland and Washington.

“I think our fans have been great. I think they get it,” Ainge said. “I think they also understand that you can’t always do what you want to do.

“But at the same time, I feel a desire for our fans and for my coach and for our ownership and everybody that follows the Celtics to see us get better as soon as possible. . . . I can assure you that we’re trying to do everything that we can to become a real contender as fast as we can, but not at the expense of panicking or feeling pressured into a bad move.”

But Ainge hasn’t always acted without pressure from his coach or above. A case in point was the return of Antoine Walker in February 2005. The Celts were listing around .500 and sent three bodies (Gary Payton, Tom Gugliotta, Michael Stewart) and a first-round pick (that they eventually got back and turned into Rajon Rondo) to Atlanta for ’Toine. One first-round playoff exit later, Walker was gone again.

“It was not my first choice,” Ainge said. “I felt like it was a needed boost just for the morale of our franchise . . . and it was a low price to pay to have a short-term run. It wasn’t the best long-term planning, for sure, but it gave us a boost.”

Ainge and the Celtics are looking for something more lasting and nutritional as they approach the draft buffet tonight. They’d just like to find a way to cut the line.