Unequivocally. And I like Yabu.
But we took him ahead of Beasley, Levert (the guy I wanted us to pick), Siakam, D Murray, Zubac, Brogdon, McCaw and Jake Layman (another guy I wanted).
Not to mention the other guys we took. Zizic and Nader. I like Zizic, but Nader is one of my least favourite C's ever. Especially when we could've had VanVleet, Nwaba, Derrick Jones Jr., Yogi Ferrell, Dorian Finney-Smith or Danuel House. Ugh.
One of my least favourite drafts in the DA era
It's shocking how poorly Ainge did with six picks in the deepest draft in recent memory.
The picks after Jaylen were groan-inducing at the time and look even worse in retrospect. It took a higher-level of Basketball negligence to ensure the Celtics didn't walk away with even one of Siakam/Levert/Murray/Zubac/Brogdon with five picks outside the lottery. Imagine how much better the current roster would be with any two of those guys instead of Yabs and your least favorite Celtic.
Pascal Siakam is putting up some Chris Bosh numbers in Toronto. That is how bad Ainge missed. Olynyk? Rozier? Oh goodness!
And this is what has predominantly jaded my perception of Ainge when it comes to drafting. How the heck do you pass on a generational talent like Giannis for a bum like Olynyk?
Not solely his fault as I am sure he had scouts and talent evaluators that were providing him suggestions, but that is awful.
15 other GMs passed on Giannis. Are all 15 GMs bad drafters too?
13 GMs passed on Kawhi Leonard.
8 GMs passed on Paul George.
12 GMs passed on Kobe
The late lottery and later is a crap shoot. You will find tons of busts, tons of solid pros, some All-Stars and the occasional all time great.
Ainge identified Al Jefferson, a former 3rd team All-NBA player, Rajon Rondo, a former 4 time All-Star/3rd team All-NBA/4 time All-Defense player and Tony Allen, a former 6 time All-Defense player in that general area.
That's really good results.
YES
Then you really have no idea what you are talking about. If your idea of judging GMs drafting ability is like that, then it follows you must think all GMs are bad drafters because of all the great players found in the 2nd round that was passed up by all 30 GMs.
First off, you're really rude. Is that how you handle a debate when someone doesn't agree with you? You tell them they don't know what you're talking about?
Now, let's take a look at Ainge's misses: Like I said earlier, he's average at drafting. He's hit some and missed some.
2007 - Drafted Glen Davis. Player still available: Marc Gasol
2008 - Drafted JR Giddens. Players that were still available: Deandre Jordan, Goran Dragic
2011 - Drafted JaJuan Johnson. Players still available: Jimmy Butler, Bojan Bogdanovich,
2012 - Drafted Jared Sullinger (who ate himself out of the league) and Fab Melo. Players available: Draymond Green, Khris Middleton, Tomas Satoransky,
2013 - Drafted Kelly Olynyk. Players available: Giannis, Mason Plumlee, Rudy Gobert,
2014 - Drafted James Young at 17: Players available: Rodney Hood, Clint Capela, Gary Harris, Nikola Jokic
