WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) – Danny Ainge finally has some young trading material to deal for a better pick for the Boston Celtics in Wednesday night’s draft.

The cost, though, may be too high.

So he’ll probably keep the seventh choice or deal for a lower pick when the 16-time champions, in the midst of a 20-year title drought, have a lottery pick for the first time in Ainge’s four drafts as executive director of basketball operations.

“I’m not interested in moving up,” he said. “I’ve had conversations about moving up but I don’t see that happening just because I think that the price to move up is not worth giving up a young asset that we like maybe even better than the pick we’d get.”

Those assets include seven players chosen in the last three drafts, ranging from 20-year-old Gerald Green to 24-year-old Tony Allen.

The seven still have to improve individually and as part of a team. The Celtics didn’t even make the playoffs last season.

“We’re not on the map yet,” Ainge said. “We haven’t done anything. We’re still out of the playoffs, picking in the lottery. We have a long way to go.”

There is, however, plenty of young talent with Delonte West, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Ryan Gomes and Orien Greene, along with Allen and Green.

“Our first step from the beginning has been to accumulate assets so we have some ability to trade and, if not, develop players,” Ainge said. “For the first time since I’ve been here, we actually have (trading) chips to play so that’s good.”

He’s done pretty well in the last two drafts with Jefferson, West and Allen coming in 2004 and Gomes, Green and Greene arriving in 2005. Boston has only one pick this year.

Ainge calls Wednesday night’s draft “unique,” with uncertainty about who the six teams picking before the Celtics will take. Boston’s greatest need is at point guard and he expects three players who could fill that to be available with the seventh pick – Randy Foye of Villanova, Rajon Rondo of Kentucky and Marcus Williams of Connecticut.

Foye is the best shooter and most complete player of the three, Williams is the best passer and closest to making an impact in the NBA and Rondo is the quickest and best defender. Those three and forward Cedric Simmons of North Carolina State, an excellent shot blocker, all worked out for Boston for the second time on Monday.

All of them could be available with the seventh pick, and Ainge hasn’t ruled out making a trade for a lower pick that also could bring an NBA veteran.

“I’m not interested in run-of-the-mill veterans,” he said. “If there’s an all-star veteran to be had for a couple of young guys or a draft pick and one of the young guys … I would do that.”

If Ainge keeps the seventh pick, Foye has one skill he covets.

“I like shooting a lot,” said Ainge, an eager shooter during his own career with Boston and elsewhere. “Shooting is like putting (in golf). It makes up for a lot of mistakes (but) there’s not one skill that I think is any more important than another.”

The top players are not as good as those in past years before high schoolers were rule ineligible from the draft. In fact, Ainge said, a player chosen first Wednesday might not have been picked until the sixth spot if the draft were as strong as it was in recent years.

“This draft is so hard to predict,” he said.

He has enough uncertainty on his own team with young players who could emerge as stars or end up as substitutes.

“We have a lot of unproven talent that has great potential,” Ainge said. “My concern is how ready are they to win?

“I know they can all play (but) there’s definitely jobs to be won.”

AP-ES-06-27-06 1849EDT