Some quotes from Danny Ainge on the playoffs and this summer

[Drucci]

Steve Bulpett has a lot of interesting quotes from Danny Ainge after our elimination and regarding this summer :

On the series' outcome : "“I think that we all expected better and more. I don’t think we played our best. We did have some injuries and we weren’t at our best, but we certainly didn’t play our best during the playoffs.”

On the lack of shooting : "“I think that was a weakness that we had going in, and we got taken out of our offense easier than we should,” he said. “Losing Avery (Bradley, hamstring) just magnified that.

“Listen, I’m not trying to disrespect the Hawks in any way. They are a good team, and we knew they were going to be a tough matchup for us. But, again, it’s not so much the result as much as we just … we had some great moments in the series, we just had a lot of droughts. I just thought we didn’t even play up to our capability, that’s all.”"

On injuries : “Isaiah (Thomas) was playing with a sprained mid-foot, and it was amazing that he played through that and did as well as he did. Jae (Crowder) had a bone bruise with the high ankle sprain, and he’ll probably be healthy in a month from now. And Kelly (Olynyk)’s shoulder is nowhere near 100 percent. He wasn’t able to get up a lot of shots and wasn’t able to practice at all for the last while.”

On his decisions to improve the team this summer : “Yeah, I hope so,” said Ainge. “We’ll be working hard to try to improve the team, and we hope that we have some good choices. But we have a lot of guys that we really like and that we want to build around, and we hope that we have a lot of options. I hope that we make some changes, sure. Significant? I don’t know what that means, but I hope that we can make some changes to improve our team. “You take everything into account, and you don’t get emotional about now,” Ainge said. “I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of who everybody is. I certainly don’t overreact to a bad couple of games in the playoffs or tough matchups or things like that. I’ve been around a long time in the NBA, and I’ve seen a lot of mistakes made doing that. We’ll evaluate the whole year and the whole two years with most everybody that we’ve had here, and we also have to evaluate the entire league at the same time.”

On the current roster : “It’s an opportunity league, and there’s a lot of guys that get an opportunity and they shine,” he said. “And we have some guys on our team that really haven’t had an opportunity yet, so we have to evaluate all 15 of our guys and the draft and free agency and the entire league. “So we’ll be preparing for the draft and watching the playoffs, and we’ll continue to evaluate the players in the NBA on film and so forth. It’s a very busy time for us.”

I just hope he is not talking about Sullinger when saying he must not overreact to a couple of bad performances in the playoffs...

[PhoSita]

Sounds a lot to me like he's managing expectations in case the fireworks plans fall through once again and we end up with substantially the same team plus some rookies.

Meh.

[Chris22]

Get Durant and Ingram.

[BadNewsBarnes]

BadNewsBarnes

To start dumping guys based on their play in this 6 game series would be reactionary and short sighted.  I don't expect Danny will be making any harsh judgements here.

Glad to hear Danny saying he won't overreact.  Getting rid of Sully isn't an overreaction though.  Getting rid of him is based on his inability to stay in shape.  We will live to regret the day we give Sully a 4 or 5 year contract in excess of $10MM per year. 

If playing in a contract year wasn't incentive enough for him to get in shape what will happen to him when he has a long term deal and no apparent incentive to stay in shape.

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

So three years after blowing it up we are exactly where we were before blowing it up, except for a younger core.

[PhoSita]

So three years after blowing it up we are exactly where we were before blowing it up, except for a younger core.

That sounds about right, only we have a top 5 pick this year and two more Nets picks coming the next two years.

Gotta hit on something with those picks for that to matter, though.


I want to say, though, the "younger core " thing is sort of a misleading term in the way it's used around here sometimes.


Thomas, Crowder, Bradley, Turner, and Amir were our best players this year.

I don't think it's going out on a limb to say those guys have probably played their best seasons already.  In three years, I'm not sure which of them will still be good enough and healthy enough to start on a playoff team.  Amir especially is old for 28, and guys as small as IT rarely play much beyond age 30.


Of the guys on the team who still have the potential to take another step, Sullinger probably should be on a different team next year.  Olynyk hasn't shown he has another gear he can reach on a regular basis.  Smart has potential, but needs to improve A LOT on offense.  The rest of the guys have no real experience at all so it's hard to say what to expect.

Point being, "young" for this team doesn't stand for "tons of room for improvement with this group of players," nor does it mean "this group could play at this level for the foreseeable future."

[Vox_Populi]

I mostly agree with Ainge as far as overreacting. Beating the Hawks wouldn't have meant the team as currently constructed is closer to contention than we had thought. And losing is the same. I think he'll go for home runs if he can get them (Durant, Boogie, Butler), but I also don't see him in any rush to make a contending team by next season.

I think the only way I'll come out of this off-season disappointed is if we don't pick at least 3rd.

[PhoSita]

I also don't see him in any rush to make a contending team by next season.

I agree.  I would disagree with the idea that a lack of opportunities to turn the team into a contender should be any excuse to not make significant changes to address the glaring weaknesses of the current roster.

If the Celts head into next season with more or less the same group plus some rookies, we shouldn't expect anything much different than this season (mid to high 40s in wins, middle seed, first round loss).

[LooseCannon]

BadNewsBarnes

To start dumping guys based on their play in this 6 game series would be reactionary and short sighted.  I don't expect Danny will be making any harsh judgements here.

Glad to hear Danny saying he won't overreact.  Getting rid of Sully isn't an overreaction though.  Getting rid of him is based on his inability to stay in shape.  We will live to regret the day we give Sully a 4 or 5 year contract in excess of $10MM per year. 

If playing in a contract year wasn't incentive enough for him to get in shape what will happen to him when he has a long term deal and no apparent incentive to stay in shape.

An overreaction would be wanting to be rid of Sullinger so badly that you don't offer him a qualifying offer and let him become an unrestricted free agent.

[Tr1boy]

"Politically correct" words by wise old Ainge

He can't say, I'm disappointed and xyz are not coming back

Values decrease that way

Changes /subtractions/addition are definitely going go happen.  Only like 5-7 guys will be back next season

[Smart457]

I also don't see him in any rush to make a contending team by next season.

I agree.  I would disagree with the idea that a lack of opportunities to turn the team into a contender should be any excuse to not make significant changes to address the glaring weaknesses of the current roster.

If the Celts head into next season with more or less the same group plus some rookies, we shouldn't expect anything much different than this season (mid to high 40s in wins, middle seed, first round loss).

So basically if Ainge whiffs with the Nets picks and we don't pick up any stud free agents, we might be stuck being a mediocre team for a while.

[greece66]

So three years after blowing it up we are exactly where we were before blowing it up, except for a younger core.

Not sure about that. In 2013-14 we were a 25 win team, Rondo (injured) and Green were still here; Crowder and IT had not arrived yet. And it was far from clear that the Brooklyn picks would turn out to be gold.

[manl_lui]

So three years after blowing it up we are exactly where we were before blowing it up, except for a younger core.

that's actually not a bad thing to be honest. The big 3 era was at the end of their peak, while this one is not even at it's peak and has room to keep growing.

I even consider this as year 2 of the rebuild. The first year after the big 3 was really just a tank-a-thon. Year 2 and year 3 is where I see us to really start to improve

[Smart457]

So three years after blowing it up we are exactly where we were before blowing it up, except for a younger core.

That sounds about right, only we have a top 5 pick this year and two more Nets picks coming the next two years.

Gotta hit on something with those picks for that to matter, though.


I want to say, though, the "younger core " thing is sort of a misleading term in the way it's used around here sometimes.


Thomas, Crowder, Bradley, Turner, and Amir were our best players this year.

I don't think it's going out on a limb to say those guys have probably played their best seasons already.  In three years, I'm not sure which of them will still be good enough and healthy enough to start on a playoff team.  Amir especially is old for 28, and guys as small as IT rarely play much beyond age 30.


Of the guys on the team who still have the potential to take another step, Sullinger probably should be on a different team next year.  Olynyk hasn't shown he has another gear he can reach on a regular basis.  Smart has potential, but needs to improve A LOT on offense.  The rest of the guys have no real experience at all so it's hard to say what to expect.

Point being, "young" for this team doesn't stand for "tons of room for improvement with this group of players," nor does it mean "this group could play at this level for the foreseeable future."

This is a point lost with a lot of people. I feel the peak age for the non all star basketball player is 24-28. Once these guys get close to 30, even at 28, teams have to decide if they want to over spend on a guy most likely to start declining or get a young rookie with potential and start the process over.

Most people think 28-32 is peak and it probably is for your standout all star since they've had time to study the game and still have athletic abilities, even after losing some of them. I just don't think the same applies to guys who are not as skilled.

[Smart457]

So three years after blowing it up we are exactly where we were before blowing it up, except for a younger core.

That sounds about right, only we have a top 5 pick this year and two more Nets picks coming the next two years.

Gotta hit on something with those picks for that to matter, though.


I want to say, though, the "younger core " thing is sort of a misleading term in the way it's used around here sometimes.


Thomas, Crowder, Bradley, Turner, and Amir were our best players this year.

I don't think it's going out on a limb to say those guys have probably played their best seasons already.  In three years, I'm not sure which of them will still be good enough and healthy enough to start on a playoff team.  Amir especially is old for 28, and guys as small as IT rarely play much beyond age 30.


Of the guys on the team who still have the potential to take another step, Sullinger probably should be on a different team next year.  Olynyk hasn't shown he has another gear he can reach on a regular basis.  Smart has potential, but needs to improve A LOT on offense.  The rest of the guys have no real experience at all so it's hard to say what to expect.

Point being, "young" for this team doesn't stand for "tons of room for improvement with this group of players," nor does it mean "this group could play at this level for the foreseeable future."

This is a point lost with a lot of people. I feel the peak age for the non all star basketball player is 24-28. Once these guys get close to 30, even at 28, teams have to decide if they want to over spend on a guy most likely to start declining or get a young rookie with potential and start the process over.

Most people think 28-32 is peak and it probably is for your standout all star since they've had time to study the game and still have athletic abilities, even after losing some of them. I just don't think the same applies to guys who are not as skilled.