Chuckle.
The rebuilding fans strike again.
There will be no steps back.
This is not about tanking.
What about how Ainge has rebuilt the team in the past makes you think he wouldn't take steps backward, or steps sideways that might make the team worse, if he thinks it would set the team up better to make a move for a star in the future?
Simply letting Bass go in free agency, not re-signing Jerebko or Datome, and adding a handful of rookies and / or young players acquired via trade would be "taking steps back." It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Ainge package a couple of picks, Bradley, and Zeller or Olynyk to move up into the top 10 of the draft, for example. That would be a step back in the present.
If the moves aren't there in free agency or via trade to make the team a contender for something better than a bottom seed, I don't expect Ainge to force things just to appease fans that think it's a moral imperative for the team to try and reach for .500.