The most nagging question on Danny Ainge’s mind now, whenever the Boston Celtics president thinks about what it will take to execute a trade for Anthony Davis, is whether he really wants to part with Jayson Tatum.

Does he really want to trade the most gifted young scorer this organization has produced since Paul Pierce? Or is Tatum essential as a complement to whoever lands here next summer, be it Davis or, considering that the Celtics were on his free agency short list once before, Kevin Durant?

Ainge doesn’t need further proof of Tatum’s value, but received a strong reminder this past weekend when the second-year forward was the toast of the first two nights of All-Star weekend. He scored 30 points for the winning U.S. team during the Rising Stars Challenge, and with a 30-foot pull-up calculated to beat the quick release of Trae Young a good seven feet closer to the basket, won Saturday night’s Skills Challenge.

Last spring’s playoff performance was not a fluke. Outside of Kyrie Irving, Tatum is already the Celtic most likely to free up and make a shot when the team absolutely needs one. In the NBA, this remains the single rarest skill to have, and certainly the most difficult to trade for.

Though he hasn’t been around long enough to be jaded by the business of the NBA – Tatum said over the weekend that he wants to remain a Celtic – he was forced to sweat his way through a storm’s worth of trade rumors with his name attached just before this month’s trade deadline.

When Ainge said during a radio interview that there was one player in particular who required some hand holding during that period, it was widely thought to be Tatum.

On the record this weekend, Tatum denied the concern.

“It didn’t really bother me. I wasn’t fazed by it,” he said. “A lot of it was rumors, I didn’t know if it was true or not. My job was just to play basketball. I wasn’t fazed by anything I saw on TV.”

At risk for the Celtics is what Tatum would almost certainly become somewhere else, perhaps as the next young star in New Orleans – a franchise with a growing list of young stars who became frustrated with the team’s inability to build.

But for Detroit Coach Dwane Casey, there’s no doubt about where Tatum is headed.

“The most important thing for him is the maturity level,” said Casey. “He’s a great talent, one of the great young talents in our league, doesn’t get the proper amount of respect because (the Celtics) have so many good players on their team. But he has a skill set that really is the future of the NBA – inside, outside, athletic ability.

“The only thing he has to fight is time, being patient with himself,” he said. “Fans being patient. There’s not a lot of that in our league. But that supportive thing is going to be the key to making him one of the leaders in our game.”

Tatum’s presence on a talent-laden team is double-edged. He benefits from the influence of older stars. But if not for these veterans, he would have more opportunities to shine.

“Very difficult when you have so many guys at the same level coming through at the same time,” said Casey. “Now he has a great older guy in Kyrie, but one of the most difficult things a younger guy can go through – DeMar DeRozan was there, Rashard Lewis in Seattle, watching those guys grow, staying patient, today’s technology doesn’t help because everyone wants to be the next Michael (Jordan), the next Kobe (Bryant), and it doesn’t happen that quick. It takes time.”

Casey was the coach most responsible for DeRozan’s development in Toronto, and he expects similar growth from Tatum. His advice to Tatum would be simple.

“Forget the noise, keep getting better because everything will fall in place. The talent is there.”

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