The Bash Danny Ainge thread

[RodyTur10]

The biggest mistake Danny made was waiting too long to choose a path.

We more or less had two teams the last two seasons.

The 'veterans': Irving, Hayward, Morris, Horford, Baynes (+Wanamaker/Larkin and Theis)
The 'youngsters': Smart, Rozier, Brown, Tatum, Williams (+ Ojeleye and Yabusele)

Both talented and both just not good enough to make the leap to contention. Ainge should have chosen a direction, either Irving-Hayward-Horford + to be acquired superstar, would need to be the championship core or Brown-Tatum + to be acquired superstar.

Gambling on a continuing championship roster (first lead by Irving, Hayward and Horford, then by Brown and Tatum) was too arrogant.

[TheSundanceKid]

The biggest mistake Danny made was waiting too long to choose a path.

We more or less had two teams the last two seasons.

The 'veterans': Irving, Hayward, Morris, Horford, Baynes (+Wanamaker/Larkin and Theis)
The 'youngsters': Smart, Rozier, Brown, Tatum, Williams (+ Ojeleye and Yabusele)

Both talented and both just not good enough to make the leap to contention. Ainge should have chosen a direction, either Irving-Hayward-Horford + to be acquired superstar, would need to be the championship core or Brown-Tatum + to be acquired superstar.

Gambling on a continuing championship roster (first lead by Irving, Hayward and Horford, then by Brown and Tatum) was too arrogant.

Not sure I agree. He perhaps got surprised by how quickly the young guys developed but what would he have done differently? I'd still want Al on the team, it's important for our system to have a big man who can score and pass.
I don't regret the Kyrie trade and I think his presence has helped Brown in particular to improve.
I don't think we lost out on the youth timeline. We gambled on having both but the fall back was always to revert to the young guys as w e will probably do.

[SHAQATTACK]

i don't regret the Kyrie trade either.  it was a good call ,  IT needed to go ,  so hevwas still better than IT was after surgery . 

Fun seeing a star on Boston again .  I guess we ll wait another 35 years before that occurs again, if ever.

as usual , Boston a team without a good center .   keep drafting guards danny. you dummy

[gpap]

We all need to respect the fact now that maybe Rozier had a reason to be a malcontent. That maybe he is that player scary Terry who brought us close to the promised land. Lets see how things fall now that the ball is out of Kyrie hands.

I'm wondering if there is a bigger douce bag then Kyrie in Celtics history. I was a supporter of Kyrie up until the trae yesterday. Now we know Kyrie is gone.

No, he doesn't warrant any respect and he's not a good player.

[vjcsmoke]

Lakers got absolutely strip-mined.  5 first round picks plus Ball, Ingram, and Hart.  And those future picks and pick swaps are unprotected.

I don't blame Danny for not matching that package for Davis.

The question is who do we go for now that Davis is off the market?

Makes me wish we had gone back in time and aggressively pursued Kahwi Leonard though when the Spurs were shopping him.

[Tr1boy]

i don't regret the Kyrie trade either.  it was a good call ,  IT needed to go ,  so hevwas still better than IT was after surgery . 

Fun seeing a star on Boston again .  I guess we ll wait another 35 years before that occurs again, if ever.

as usual , Boston a team without a good center .  keep drafting guards danny. you dummy

Robert Williams from last season draft says hi

I feel like Danny will draft at least one center this time around

there are several decent ones at 14 and even at 20

[Sketch5]

i don't regret the Kyrie trade either.  it was a good call ,  IT needed to go ,  so hevwas still better than IT was after surgery . 

Fun seeing a star on Boston again .  I guess we ll wait another 35 years before that occurs again, if ever.

as usual , Boston a team without a good center .  keep drafting guards danny. you dummy

Robert Williams from last season draft says hi

I feel like Danny will draft at least one center this time around

there are several decent ones at 14 and even at 20

Yeah it's not like he's had much to choose from were he's been able to draft on the most part . DA's been a "best available player" type drafter. There was also a dry spell of good bigs for a while it felt like. Then the last few years we started to get some good ones in the top 5, but not in the years DA had picks that low.

[jambr380]

Are people really that excited about the draft? For a few years there, I was actually attending the draft at the Barclays Center - it wasn't some monumental event, but it was exciting seeing how the Cs were going to build their team.

This off-season just feels like a total letdown. We aren't getting Zion, Morant, or even Barrett. We are talking about cosmically average players who we hope one day will be better than JaJuan Jonhnson. This summer was supposed to be different. We were supposed to be the big, bad Celtics seriously contending for a championship. If we didn't win it last year, we were going to land a mega super-star and really put the hammer down on the league.

Obviously I hope we draft the next Kawhi or Giannis - even Siakam or Draymond - but I am far more interested to see what Danny has up his sleeve next. Hopefully he will surprise us all.

[PhoSita]

From Sports Illustrated:

Celtics. The end of Boston's rebuilding process is beginning to look like the inverse of the Golden State origin story. The Warriors, of course, needed a dozen different strokes of fate to build the best team since the Jordan Bulls. They needed Dwight Howard to choose the Rockets (Golden State traded for Iguodala instead). They needed David Lee to get hurt (Draymond Green took over and turned into a hall of famer). They needed a historic cap spike to coincide with Kevin Durant's free agency after losing a title in a Game 7. They needed Steph Curry to struggle with ankle injuries early in his career, freeing up space to build the rest of the team as the second-best player of the current generation played for the same money that Ty Lawson was getting. There were a handful of additional inflection points, too, but you get the point. The Warriors were made possible by a perfect storm of ambition, foresight, good timing, and blind luck.

I think the Celtics had both the ambition and the foresight elements of that equation. The Nets trade may have been half-luck, sure, but the Tatum trade two years ago was pure evil. Likewise, drafting a player like Jaylen Brown wasn't popular at the time, but it was the right move, and the decision was indicative of a team that understood the league would one day belong to two-way wings who could switch on defense and hit from the perimeter. So let’s acknowledge up front that the Celtics understand what they're doing, they have been fearless in charting their course, and most of the decisions they’ve made have been objectively smart. The most convincing criticism you can make is that this team was too conservative in trade talks, largely because the front office was biding its time until Anthony Davis became available. Speaking of which...

An incomplete list of disastrous developments in the past 12 months:

• The Celtics owned Sacramento '19 first-round pick, widely expected to be the jewel of an AD trade. The Kings were projected to win 25.5 games. Instead, they won 39 games. The pick landed at 14.
• The Celtics decided not to trade Jaylen Brown for Kawhi Leonard, possibly because they assumed Brown would eventually be moved in an AD deal.
• Brown's game cratered for the first half of this season, undermining his value in said deal.
• Gordon Hayward, once an All-Star and an All-NBA candidate, averaged 11.5 ppg this season. He made $31.2 million. His trade value cratered more than anyone.
• The ‘18-‘19 regular season began with the Celtics projected to win 59 games and finish first in the East. They won 49 and finished fifth.
• Kyrie Irving opened the year saying, "If you guys will have me back, I plan on re-signing here."
• Kryie Irving asked about that promise five months later: "I don't owe anybody s---."
• Later that night, Davis' father cited the Isaiah Thomas trade and said he would never want his son to be part of the Celtics organization.
• Because of an arcane CBA rule, Kyrie's presence on the roster meant the Celtics were incapable of topping a Lakers offer in February, when L.A.'s trade package was half as enticing. Read about the "Rose Rule" here.
• Meanwhile, AD rumors swirled around this team all year as outsiders wondered what could possibly be wrong with Boston’s chemistry.
• At the lottery, even after Sacramento's success this year, the Celtics came within one ping pong ball of landing at No. 4. That pick went to the Lakers instead.
• This week, Sports Illustrated ran a story in which Paul promised that Davis would enter free agency if he were traded to Boston.
• Despite it all, the Celtics were reportedly prepared to enter the bidding as recently as Wednesday afternoon.
• Wednesday night, word leaked that Kyrie was changing agents and plans to sign with ROC Nation Sports, all but confirming speculation that he is leaving Boston, rendering a one-year AD rental significantly more perilous.

All of the above is a how years' worth of meticulous planning goes up in flames. It's honestly pretty breathtaking. Some of what went awry can obviously be second guessed, but most of what happened here is the product of a smart and aggressive management process yielding hilariously bad results. We'll see how Boston responds. There will be room to make alternate moves and it's unlikely that the Celtics will stand pat all summer, but losing Davis and Kyrie looks like a worst-case scenario after a years-long rebuilding process that was supposed to end with a title nucleus.

[PhoSita]

Are people really that excited about the draft? For a few years there, I was actually attending the draft at the Barclays Center - it wasn't some monumental event, but it was exciting seeing how the Cs were going to build their team.

This off-season just feels like a total letdown. We aren't getting Zion, Morant, or even Barrett. We are talking about cosmically average players who we hope one day will be better than JaJuan Jonhnson. This summer was supposed to be different. We were supposed to be the big, bad Celtics seriously contending for a championship. If we didn't win it last year, we were going to land a mega super-star and really put the hammer down on the league.

Obviously I hope we draft the next Kawhi or Giannis - even Siakam or Draymond - but I am far more interested to see what Danny has up his sleeve next. Hopefully he will surprise us all.

I don't think there's any surprise move coming.  The Celts will basically hope to enter next year with a version of the 2018 playoff team plus some rookies and a couple useful role players added to the bench. 

Then they will see how good Tatum and Brown can be.  They will see how far back from the injury Hayward can come.  They will see how good Terry Rozier can be with a full time starting gig.


They will try to maximize the value of those pieces.  And then they will assess what the ceiling may be for this group and adjust the future plans accordingly.


It's going to be a slow process.  It's all the Celts can do after so much has gone wrong.

[Phantom255x]

We literally traded Baynes AND Ty Jerome for likely the 30th pick in next year's Draft?!?!

You've got to be kidding me Danny 

[azzenfrost]

Eh he's earned the right to bomb some time.

[SHAQATTACK]

he is trying to get fired i think...

you can leave Danny

just clean out your desk and GO

[gpap]

We literally traded Baynes AND Ty Jerome for likely the 30th pick in next year's Draft?!?!

You've got to be kidding me Danny 

I think he's trying to clear cap space to sign a free agent to a max deal.

Either way, I'm not exactly devastated about losing Baynes and his 3 games from last season and Ty Jerome.

I'm wondering if Ainge can actually have a really good offseason, put a good team together, and then get fired!

It would be a win-win

[Ilikesports17]

We literally traded Baynes AND Ty Jerome for likely the 30th pick in next year's Draft?!?!

You've got to be kidding me Danny 

Clearing Baynes deal.

Im assuming the agreement is Phoenix will buy him out so he can sign for a contender.

Next years draft is supposed to be better so 24 ~ 28-30 is probably a lateral move.

This also frees up an extra .5 k or so moving from pick 24s cap hold to a roster charge.