Hayward and Kyrie's injuries derailed Ainge's genius

[BoulderMike]

Tatum or Kemba?  LOL


Tatum, with Brown as his #2.  Kemba has no sway.  He is only here as long as Tatum says his presence is acceptable.

well make that clear and be resigned to the reality that you have at least another 3 years to a championship.

EXCELLENT point and I agree.  it is for this reason that i wanted Myles Turner.  Is he the answer for three years from now? Uncertain, but the odds are higher than 0%.  What are the odds that TT will be part of our 2023 championship team?  exactly 0%.

[celts10]

Maybe we are going to have to add Kemba's injury to that list.

KG's knee issue and Perk's ACL tear also cost us at least one banner if not two.

And Rondo's ACL tear in 2013 which really ruined everything at the time and prompted Ainge to rebuild.

[hwangjini_1]

Trading IT was the big mistake. It tasted bad at the time, but we convinced ourselves it had to be done because it was bringing in Kyrie, the guy who could help us topple LeBron. Ultimately, it ruined the Celtics/Ainge’s reputation with many players throughout the league. We are incredibly lucky Kemba agreed to come here, which is why he needs the royal treatment to play out his contract here.

If we had stuck with IT and passed on Kyrie, the 2017-2018 season would have been roughly the same situation, but perhaps we later make a deal for AD and/or Kawhi, and currently have a championship big three revolving around one or both and Tatum/maybe Brown.

C’est la vie. Ainge gets 2020-2021 to bring the championship home, or bring in RC Buford for a new rebuild around Tatum.

please provide a source for this. since then, the celtics have brought in a number of players and i have not seen blow back on this. thanks.

[GreenEnvy]

KG’s injury impacted 2009-12, easy to imagine us winning a few more titles if he never gets injured. We all know how 2010 went down, but 2009 they were arguably better than 2008. And how close we came in 2012 to making the Finals when KG was already fading.

Then 2017-2020 we saw a myriad of injuries to IT4, Kyrie, Hayward, Kemba.

I know all teams deal with injuries over the years, but we’ve routinely had our best/second best player either out or noticeably limited.

Ainge puts together a good roster. They just haven’t been able to stay healthy when the playoffs roll around.