If you’re wondering what direction the Boston Celtics will go during tonight’s NBA Draft, Danny Ainge requests that you stay tuned.

Things could get very interesting.

The Celtics president of basketball operations is confidently holding hope that he can wheel and deal his team into a more desirable draft night situation. And, really, what else would you expect from the ever-incisive Ainge?

“Right now, we don’t even know where we’ll be drafting or what position we’ll be in,” said Ainge during a predraft session with reporters on Tuesday at the team’s practice facility. “We think there’s going to be a lot of activity on draft night. Our draft pick maybe will have been traded before we even make the pick.”

The Celtics hold the No. 16 and No. 28 picks in the first round, and the No. 33 and No. 45 picks in the second round.

Ainge made a couple things abundantly clear on Tuesday: He doesn’t believe this is a particularly deep draft — outside of the talented bigs projected to go in the top 10 — and he doesn’t have the appetite to add to the Celtics’ roster by using all four picks.

He admitted that the Celtics are aggressively exploring trading up in the draft, presumably into the top 10, using their current first-round picks as trade chips. And he has reason for optimism.

“There’s a lot more talk. I guess I’m hopeful that there’s some movement. We have a lot of things going on, a lot of possibilities,” Ainge said. “Usually nothing happens, but we’re hopeful. Nobody wants to move down, you have to be enticed to.”

Boston has long been rumored to be interested in Kentucky 7-foot center Willie Cauley-Stein, a superathletic defensive specialist with seemingly endless potential. It’s likely that the Celtics would have to get into at least the top eight to have a realistic shot at Cauley-Stein. It’s also been rumored that the New York Knicks are open to trading their pick at No. 4. So, there’s that.

The Celtics hosted a plethora of players for predraft workouts over the past month, and Ainge spent a week in Los Angeles to watch 70-80 players workout.

NBA Draft Order

By The Associated Press
Thursday
At Brooklyn, N.Y.
First Round
1. Minnesota
2. L.A. Lakers
3. Philadelphia
4. New York
5. Orlando
6. Sacramento
7. Denver
8. Detroit
9. Charlotte
10. Miami
11. Indiana
12. Utah
13. Phoenix
14. Oklahoma City
15. Atlanta (from Brooklyn)
16. Boston
17. Milwaukee
18. Houston (from New Orleans)
19. Washington
20. Toronto
21. Dallas
22. Chicago
23. Portland
24. Cleveland
25. Memphis
26. San Antonio
27. L.A. Lakers (from Houston)
28. Boston (from L.A. Clippers)
29. Brooklyn (from Atlanta)
30. Golden State
Second Round
33. Boston (from Philadelphia
through Miami)
45. Boston