Answers, understanding, clarity. Human nature is to crave them or try to carve them out of uncertainty. That’s why the most pressing question for the Celtics isn’t which player they intend to draft Thursday night. It’s a more philosophical query.

What’s The Plan?

We’re talking the capital T, capital P, blueprint for Banner 18.

That’s what Celtics fans want to know after the team dealt the coveted No. 1 pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft to the Philadelphia 76ers Monday for the No. 3 pick in this year’s draft and a first-rounder in either 2018 or 2019. The conditions and protections on the 76ers picks are about as abstruse as the Celtics’ overarching plan.

What’s The Plan? Is it to remain relevant in the foreground while building a title contender in the background through a bounty of draft picks, ending up with an enviable core like the Golden State Warriors? Is it to parlay the passel of picks into proven NBA talent that can augment Isaiah Thomas, Al Horford, and [insert max free agent here] to push the Celtics closer to superteam territory? Is it to pounce if a rival general manager loses his faculties or a transformative player loses patience with his team and demands out?

It’s all of the above.

The Celtics are like a survivalist preparing for the disintegration of society: They want to be ready for anything. That’s why The Plan is so nebulous and amorphous.

The Celtics don’t know what it is because they don’t know which way the winds of fortune are going to gust. Right now, The Plan is just to collect assets, maintain maximum flexibility, and pray that the Basketball Gods reward their patience. That’s not sexy or satisfying, but it’s reality.

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge is hoarding picks because he wants his team to be an amoeba, able to take whatever shape it needs to get back to serious title contention, not simply serving as a speed bump on the way to the NBA Finals. The Celtics can wait out the Warriors’ reign or seize an opportunity for eminence in the East if the latest ominous tweet from LeBron James about the departure of Cavaliers general manager David Griffin reflects his dissatisfaction in Cleveland.

Whatever the shape, Ainge determined that it didn’t involve presumptive No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz. For better or worse, that decision is going to be on Ainge’s team-building epitaph.

The landscape in the NBA can change fast, and the Celtics are built to adapt. There were reports Wednesday that the New York Knicks were listening to overtures involving Kristaps Porzingis. The Knicks should name Charles Oakley director of mindfulness before they trade Porzingis, a 21-year-old, 7-foot-3-inch power forward who can block shots, handle the basketball, and shoot threes.

Porzingis is basically a basketball unicorn. He would be perfect in the system of Celtics coach Brad Stevens. Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my mouth over the thought of the lithe Latvian in green.

It’s a long shot, but the Knicks are the kings of self-inflicted harm. The Celtics would have the ammunition to get a deal done for Porzingis, who has already seen through Phil Jackson’s phony vision. The same goes for Jimmy Butler or another star player who becomes available. That’s the point of The Plan.

Including Thursday’s first-rounder, the Celtics, who have their own picks in 2018 and 2019, could have as many as seven first-round picks between now and the 2019 draft. The Auerbachian fleecing of the Nets handed the Celtics the No. 1 overall pick this year, and the Celtics still have Brooklyn’s 2018 first-rounder as a trump card.

The potentially fatal flaw in the Celtics’ assets strategy is that the draft picks come with an expiration date that can make them depreciating assets and force a decision. Horford is going to be 33 at the end of the 2018-19 season with a player option for 2019-20. Is he going to be interested in sticking around to see what the Celtics Class of 2018 and Class of 2019 can do or is he going to bolt to win a title? Will the young players reach their potential in time to intersect with his ability to play at a high level?

Some of the first-rounders could end up being R.J. Hunters and James Youngs, first-round picks that were far more valuable in theory than in practice.

The Celtics will eventually have to pick a path with their picks — using them to build for a bright future or to expedite the process of redecorating the rafters.

The Green should fill in more of the details of The Plan on Thursday. Discussing dealing away the No. 1 pick, Ainge seemed exceedingly confident in a conference call with reporters Monday that the player he coveted most would be available with the third pick.

All signs point to the Celtics using the pick and drafting a small forward. The popular names are Kansas’s Josh Jackson and Duke’s Jayson Tatum. Yet, there almost seems like there is too much chatter about Jackson and Tatum.

Ainge and his staff don’t subscribe to the NBA’s groupthink. It wouldn’t be a complete surprise if they took Florida State’s Jonathan Isaac, a 6-10 defensive diamond who can switch to defend smaller players, provide rim protection with his length, and knock down the 3-pointer offensively. Ainge tends to lean to outlier athletes.

What the Celtics are planning is giving themselves more chances in the NBA’s game of chance. Maybe one of these days they’ll win a prize.

If there’s a real concern about The Plan, it’s that flexibility can morph into indecision and ambivalence.

At some point, the Celtics will have to detail The Plan and stick to it.

Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.