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A subtle reminder that Danny Ainge is pretty damn good

Chuck - Red's Army January 16, 2015 Celtics News, Danny Ainge 35 Comments

One NBA GM told me, “Danny Ainge is the best GM in the league” while discussing all his trades of Jeff Green, Brandan Wright, etc. #Celtics

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) January 15, 2015

As Trader Danny continues his “everything must go” approach to this roster, I wanted to pass along this commentary from an anonymous NBA GM.

Sure, Ainge has some big misses (JaJuan Johnson, Fab Melo, Jermaine O’Neal, etc), but we should be thankful he’s running our franchise.

Just take a quick look around the league. The Lakers and Knicks are colossal failures with aging, injured stars and few promising players. Brooklyn, who 18 months ago was the darling of the NBA, is selling off everything. (Those draft picks are going to be gold!) Cleveland is a hot mess. Doc Rivers the GM is single-handedly ruining the Clippers.

My point is… be thankful for Ainge and this ownership group.

ICYMI, ESPN Boston’s Chris Forsberg has a great breakdown of all the roster moves and assets acquired by Trader Danny.

Editor’s note: If the Celtics are still languishing at the bottom of the East in 2 years with no signs of promise, I reserve the right to blast Ainge for his mismanagement of the assets. It’s a blogger’s prerogative.

adam

Are the clippers that bad? I haven’t been paying attention to them at all.
- Brad Champagne
  
  They’re nowhere near where they should be.
- Tommy-Heinsohn
  
  Yeah Doc has made some questionable decisions… Spencer Hawes for example
Dave

As pissed as I was about the KG & PP as well as the Rondo trade, I knew Danny’s actions during the time pisses a lot of people off but long term are good for the franchise.

Another colossal failure is Sacramento, they fired the one coach that actually got things going with their core and now they’re a mess, stuck in the middle of the pack after having playoff aspirations.

Keep stocking up on those draft picks Danny, soon we’ll own most of the league’s picks within the next few years so other teams will have no choice but to oblige to our demands >:)

Oh but leave a couple around so we can net Thon Maker as well as a few other complimentary pieces
forever_green

Oh pleeeeeease!
- Sean McLaughlin
  
  Someone’s trying to get press passes into the locker room for interviews, methinks. lmao.
Andy

Yup. Ainge is a beast.
Andy

Jermaine Oneal wasn’t a miss. Ainge pulled him off the scrap heap and he played big minutes for us until he got hurt.
- WardenOfTheNorth
  
  not entirely accurate. With perk fresh off knee surgery and rasheed basically retired, the big splash for danny and the c’s was to convince jermaine to take less and play on a contender (which he did). problem is, jermaine only played in 24 games the 1st year (started only 10) and played in 25 games the next year (lockout). he was brought in to fill perk’s void, but he would only suit up about 1 out of every 3 or 4 games. the idea of bringing in someone like jermaine was very appealing and I’m sure kg and pp were thrilled to have him. however, when he’s out of the lineup for 2/3 of the season, battling issues with his wrist, you can understand that some teammates grew frustrated and in my eyes, eventually regarded this signing as “a miss”. especially, when you factor in that the big 3 had just finished its 2nd NBA Finals in 3 years. the consensus was that this team still had 1-2 more runs in them before it was over. they just needed a big to keep them in the playoff hunt until perk was healthy. A guy like jermaine (taking their full MLE for 2 years) needed to be reliable and accountable for a full nba season. unfortunately, he failed to live up to those expectations. of course, we all know what happened when perk came back….
  - Andy
    
    He battled knee problems his whole career up to us signing him we knew it was a risk. To put him in the same category as Melo and Johnson is a stretch. I would say Jason Terry was a much bigger “miss” than Oneal
Sean McLaughlin

He had one good trade that resulted in a championship, don’t get me wrong, but just amassing assets doesn’t make you a good GM. Talk to me when he actually does something with all these second rounders and unconfirmed firsts he acquired for the best pass first point guard (Wall may be in contention for that title if Rondo doesn’t watch out though lol) in the league and a more than solid SF that complements stars. You can have all the cap space in the world, but if you think you’re going to get quality stars WITH HEART to sign in free agency with a mediocre team that has no chance of a championship, you’re mistaken. You may get a “quality star”, but it’s just gonna be one like Carmelo that’s just in it for the money. Is that the definition of Celtic Pride???
- Mike C
  
  Damn Right!!
- Dave
  
  I agree but at least we have a bunch of stuff to work with. LA and NY are going nowhere and it’s a pleasure to watch. Just got to wait and see now what he does with them.
  
  I’m kinda hoping we or Brooklyn will finish with decent enough record for us to net Thon Maker in either 2016 or 2017 depending if he wants to take the extra year of high school. After that try and add complimentary pieces via those picks and assets or trades and we can get something going.
  - Sean McLaughlin
    
    I don’t disagree that we’re doing better than them in particular… Just stating that we would’ve been in a better situation if we had kept Rondo and Green. No matter what C’s fans think of his inconsistency, Green is respected around the league and would’ve been more of a draw for free agents than people think. As far as Rondo, that’s self explanatory. Countless players and coaches have lauded and coveted him for years. Those two were our “core” guys that would’ve drew the Mark Gasols and Kevin Loves (hell, maybe even the Anthony Davis’) of the league. I know, KL is playing terribly right now, but that’s an “in Lebron’s shadow” situation as far as I’m concerned. We may pull off some miraculous trades and rise into contention. I sincerely hope we do. I’m just skeptical of our chances of that happening in the next 4-5 years or so. Before this roster dump I had us more pegged at 2-3. You give up an all star, to get picks, to hopefully get an all star. You give up a solid role player that’s just becoming consistent after open heart surgery that would’ve brought most peoples’ careers to a screeching halt for marginal picks. We’re talking top 12 protected that could turn into a couple of second rounders. We’re committed now, so all I can do is wait and whine… (know I’m sounding like a broken record here… my apologies lol)
    - bob
      
      Be patient. I see this team coming together by season’s end with tons of trade assets to boot. I think both Green and Rondo were going to be expensive and in the way of the rebuilding. I would rather the whole team have a great number of assists rather than mostly one player. I would rather more players shooting at a higher % of baskets than Green leading in shots taken with a below average % of baskets. This team will be much better quicker than most people think. (esp. when Kelly starts defending and Smart keeps adjusting to the NBA!) IMHO
- bob
  
  Get quality players with heart?? What are the trade exemptions and draft picks for? No comprenda!
  - Sean McLaughlin
    
    High dollar players don’t necessarily make championship players was my point. A championship player goes where he has the best chance of winning, a high dollar one that only cares about the max contract goes to NY or Houston… (Carmelo or Dwight respectively if you don’t get the reference lol)
    - Dave
      
      That’s most players now a days, normally people that come to Boston are the ones that genuinely want to win. In that I’m glad we’re not a big free agent destination, when we get good players we know they’re committed to winning here and what it means to be a Celtic.
      - Sean McLaughlin
        
        Very well said! And that’s what irks me about Ainge turning us into a “business first” organization… Call me a romantic, but we have more than just money on the line here… We are Celtics! And that’s supposed to mean something.
      - Dave
        
        Haha I’m kinda like that too, but during the times that he did what he did I knew what he does pisses people off but is in the best interest of the team long term.
        
        That’s why now a days I try not to get too attached to players since they could be gone before you know it. Him and everybody else are still looking for pieces to create a new identity for this team so all we can do is wait and see.
        
        Personally, I would have loved it if Danny say tried pulling off some sign and trades for Monta and Mozgov back in 2013 to help give KG and PP another run with a returning Rondo as well as more added depth. We could have been in a great spot to win a chip this year and have KG and PP retire happily as champs and Celtics. We probably would have went on a rebuild after that but I would have been fine with that. One can only dream haha.
      - Sean McLaughlin
        
        I hear ya… It’s like when you’ve had your heart broken, so you turn cold so you won’t get hurt again. I’m just still trying to stay open to love in a changing world, I guess. (if you get the analogy lol) And yeah, that would’ve been a massive boost! Here’s to Shavlik Randolph becoming Lebron 2.0 this year! He’s our only hope! lol
      - Dave
        
        If you want to put it that way yea but I would have used a different choice of words on a sports blog haha. Shavlik is the White Mamba’s protege, second coming of the GOAT.
- Fitzy
  
  It’s like you think this is the finished product lol.
- elvischannel
  
  It was a business in the past, too. Like when Red traded Danny Ainge away for Joe Kleine and Ed Pinckney. What do you think Danny learned from that?
art

The only really bad deal that Danny has made was the Perkins-Green trade. The timing was awful, Green is/was a bunch of nothing, and the C’s starting center was no more. Other than that Danny has been quite skillful in recognizing talent in the draft (Rondo, Perkins, etc.) although yeah there have been some disappointments but you can’t be right all of the time. He’s going to put those skills to work in the upcoming drafts and they truly are events to look forward to. Having an active GM is a good thing and no complaints about any of the many recent deals. Nor with any of the other trades except the one mentioned above.
- bob
  
  Perkins (check out his injuries) might have helped the Celtics win another championship. Ainge has admitted he made a mistake. Perkins did turn down an offer by the Celtics and Ainge wanted to get something for him before free agency. He got a draft pick that he used for Melo, who showed great promise and eveyone was excited about… at first. He also got a 1sr rounder and second rounder and Randolph and less payroll and a trade exemption because of trading Green, who he might have lost to free agency or had to pay to much to keep.
GoKingsGoCeltsGoTigersGoNiners

I thought danny said yesterday that his strategy of amassing a bunch of picks was generally useless. According to him, picks rarely become quality NBA players and other teams aren’t willing to trade quality for picks (other than danny of course).
Jerry Suave

Ujiri or Pop are the Best GM’s
- Dave
  
  Pop isn’t a GM, R.C. Buford is lol.
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bill_nair

Anyone can tear down a house. When he actually implements a foundation ill give him credit. Whatever GM said this must absolutely hate Buford.