Tip My Hat to Danny 🎩 🍀

[libermaniac]

Danny’s asset collection, negotiation ability, and drafting is elite. He got about 1-2 draft assets above Gobert’s market value.

DA had the third best drafting track record according to one of The Ringer’s draft analysis of the past 10-15 years. It took into account draft position, expected value and actual value, which makes him an elite drafter as well. Mentioning his misses is like Skip Bayless talking about the 2016 Finals to justify his Steph Curry discrediting.

One of Danny’s strengths is also a drawback in certain situations. He’ll let a player walk (or not pull the trigger on a trade) if the price is not to his liking even if it isn’t the best move for the team.

DA making the trade to acquire the assets, keeping the assets (instead of trading them to build around Rondo), drafting most of the roster, and allowing them the time to develop instead of trading them for a rental far outweighs his weaknesses though. Combined with Brad’s team building skill has now made this team the favorite to win the NBA Championship and have a sustained run as a contender.

Romeo and Nesmith say otherwise about his drafting ability.  Add to this Troy Bell, Gabe Pruitt, JR Giddens, Fab Melo, James Young, RJ Hunter,  Yabusele,  and trading Desmond Bane.....

… and trading Matisse Thybulle. But there are always hits and misses.

I thought Ainge was a very good GM overall.

But, I think he had one strategic flaw. The one move that he made 4 times was to either take an inferior draft and stash player (Yabusele and Zizic when DaJonte Murray was on the board) or trading out of the first round because he didn’t want to pay the contract (Banes and Thybulle). This was primarily driven by money but if he had the picks he should have cleared roster space for them or traded them for something of value beforehand. He certainly didn’t maximize the value he got from his boatload of non-lottery first rounders.

[pokeKingCurtis]

I gotta say, having heard some of the analyses, I also love this deal with Minnesota.

Initially was super excited for another Ainge special.

But this could look really good for the T-Wolves.

[Rondo9]

Danny’s asset collection, negotiation ability, and drafting is elite. He got about 1-2 draft assets above Gobert’s market value.

DA had the third best drafting track record according to one of The Ringer’s draft analysis of the past 10-15 years. It took into account draft position, expected value and actual value, which makes him an elite drafter as well. Mentioning his misses is like Skip Bayless talking about the 2016 Finals to justify his Steph Curry discrediting.

One of Danny’s strengths is also a drawback in certain situations. He’ll let a player walk (or not pull the trigger on a trade) if the price is not to his liking even if it isn’t the best move for the team.

DA making the trade to acquire the assets, keeping the assets (instead of trading them to build around Rondo), drafting most of the roster, and allowing them the time to develop instead of trading them for a rental far outweighs his weaknesses though. Combined with Brad’s team building skill has now made this team the favorite to win the NBA Championship and have a sustained run as a contender.

Romeo and Nesmith say otherwise about his drafting ability.  Add to this Troy Bell, Gabe Pruitt, JR Giddens, Fab Melo, James Young, RJ Hunter,  Yabusele,  and trading Desmond Bane.....

… and trading Matisse Thybulle. But there are always hits and misses.

I thought Ainge was a very good GM overall.

But, I think he had one strategic flaw. The one move that he made 4 times was to either take an inferior draft and stash player (Yabusele and Zizic when DaJonte Murray was on the board) or trading out of the first round because he didn’t want to pay the contract (Banes and Thybulle). This was primarily driven by money but if he had the picks he should have cleared roster space for them or traded them for something of value beforehand. He certainly didn’t maximize the value he got from his boatload of non-lottery first rounders.

Seesh no love for Grant Williams, Terry Rozier, Payton Pritchard, Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk? Sure Danny had his missed but show me a GM that hits on all of their draft picks.

[pokeKingCurtis]

Danny’s asset collection, negotiation ability, and drafting is elite. He got about 1-2 draft assets above Gobert’s market value.

DA had the third best drafting track record according to one of The Ringer’s draft analysis of the past 10-15 years. It took into account draft position, expected value and actual value, which makes him an elite drafter as well. Mentioning his misses is like Skip Bayless talking about the 2016 Finals to justify his Steph Curry discrediting.

One of Danny’s strengths is also a drawback in certain situations. He’ll let a player walk (or not pull the trigger on a trade) if the price is not to his liking even if it isn’t the best move for the team.

DA making the trade to acquire the assets, keeping the assets (instead of trading them to build around Rondo), drafting most of the roster, and allowing them the time to develop instead of trading them for a rental far outweighs his weaknesses though. Combined with Brad’s team building skill has now made this team the favorite to win the NBA Championship and have a sustained run as a contender.

Romeo and Nesmith say otherwise about his drafting ability.  Add to this Troy Bell, Gabe Pruitt, JR Giddens, Fab Melo, James Young, RJ Hunter,  Yabusele,  and trading Desmond Bane.....

… and trading Matisse Thybulle. But there are always hits and misses.

I thought Ainge was a very good GM overall.

But, I think he had one strategic flaw. The one move that he made 4 times was to either take an inferior draft and stash player (Yabusele and Zizic when DaJonte Murray was on the board) or trading out of the first round because he didn’t want to pay the contract (Banes and Thybulle). This was primarily driven by money but if he had the picks he should have cleared roster space for them or traded them for something of value beforehand. He certainly didn’t maximize the value he got from his boatload of non-lottery first rounders.

Seesh no love for Grant Williams, Terry Rozier, Payton Pritchard, Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk? Sure Danny had his missed but show me a GM that hits on all of their draft picks.

He certainly didn’t maximize the value he got from his boatload of non-lottery first rounders.

I mean this part is somewhat fair.

But now the narrative of the NBA has swung wildly the other way again, in that now people think NBA draft picks aren't worth that much.

As mentioned before, I'm still happy with those Yabusele type picks, because I think those were done with the intention of maintaining max flexibility for a big move.

[td450]

I gotta say, having heard some of the analyses, I also love this deal with Minnesota.

Initially was super excited for another Ainge special.

But this could look really good for the T-Wolves.

Huh?

This deal has a very, very narrow window of success for the Timberwolves. Gobert and KAT need to somehow work defensively (how does that happen?) and Anthony Edwards, who is 20, needs to ascend to MVP candidate level before Gobert, who is 30 (traditional centers age early and Gobert is all about defensive dominance) starts to decline.

This is one of the worst deals ever. They probably could have gotten Murray and still had the resources to go get a top 10 center like Capela or Ayton for the same haul. What were they thinking?

[hwangjini_1]

Danny’s asset collection, negotiation ability, and drafting is elite. He got about 1-2 draft assets above Gobert’s market value.

DA had the third best drafting track record according to one of The Ringer’s draft analysis of the past 10-15 years. It took into account draft position, expected value and actual value, which makes him an elite drafter as well. Mentioning his misses is like Skip Bayless talking about the 2016 Finals to justify his Steph Curry discrediting.

One of Danny’s strengths is also a drawback in certain situations. He’ll let a player walk (or not pull the trigger on a trade) if the price is not to his liking even if it isn’t the best move for the team.

DA making the trade to acquire the assets, keeping the assets (instead of trading them to build around Rondo), drafting most of the roster, and allowing them the time to develop instead of trading them for a rental far outweighs his weaknesses though. Combined with Brad’s team building skill has now made this team the favorite to win the NBA Championship and have a sustained run as a contender.

Romeo and Nesmith say otherwise about his drafting ability.  Add to this Troy Bell, Gabe Pruitt, JR Giddens, Fab Melo, James Young, RJ Hunter,  Yabusele,  and trading Desmond Bane.....

as has been mentioned many times before, the best way to assess drafting for a team/GM is to compare the outcome to the league averages for success and failure based upon the pick's location in the ddraft (top 10, teens, 20s, etc.)

using that as the measure ainge's history is above average in terms of find good players.

[ETNCeltics]

6 of our top 8 players last year were Danny draft picks.

We were 2 games short of a title. Criticizing his drafting is laughable.

[Kuberski33]

We get to watch him try to rebuild another team. I think he's just getting started.  Of course, I still think that ownership forced him out here - and it was the right move.

And speaking of Danny:  https://ahnfiredigital.com/nba/utah-jazz/report-danny-ainge-doesnt-believe-donovan-mitchell-can-be-the-face-of-a-contending-franchise/

[#1P4P]

For the Ainge draft detractors, what GM’s are you comparing his draft record to?

For comparison, it’s like trying to argue that Steph Curry is actually a bad 3 point shooter because he shoots 40% from 3: (in Skip Bayless’ tone) “Steph Curry missing 6 out of 10 shots is supposed to be good? Well, 4 out of 10 might be good for you, but not for me. Look at these 6 misses. That’s a great 3 point shooter to you?”

It’s a ridiculous argument that is completely devoid of context of how he compares to his peers.

The fact is, if we take the best GM’s draft record, add in context like draft position/expected value/real value/success and failure rate of all GM’s, compare it to Ainge’s, and he will compare favorably against any NBA GM’s draft record.

[td450]

I don't get the draft criticisms.

His problems as a GM were that last stretch beginning at the end of the year after the Kyrie trade. From there on, he just didn't seem capable of focusing his vision on what he had and what final moves he needed to make to put them in contention. To be fair, Hayward falling apart was just bad luck, but trading IT for Kyrie was a reprieve, not a solution, and he should have seen that. Kemba was unforgivable.

When your core is Tatum and Brown and you also have Smart, your only path is to go for a defense first identity. Watching Stevens make none of those same mistakes only confirms that view.

He was a consistently great GM who had a few years of indecisiveness. He drafted fine. 

[Birdman]

Danny loves draft picks

[Celtics2021]

I don't get the draft criticisms.

His problems as a GM were that last stretch beginning at the end of the year after the Kyrie trade. From there on, he just didn't seem capable of focusing his vision on what he had and what final moves he needed to make to put them in contention. To be fair, Hayward falling apart was just bad luck, but trading IT for Kyrie was a reprieve, not a solution, and he should have seen that. Kemba was unforgivable.

When your core is Tatum and Brown and you also have Smart, your only path is to go for a defense first identity. Watching Stevens make none of those same mistakes only confirms that view.

He was a consistently great GM who had a few years of indecisiveness. He drafted fine.

I think Ainge’s single biggest mistake was not trading or extending Rozier after the conference finals run.  He clearly wanted to be a starter, and at that point deserved to be a starter.  He chafed all year, and certainly could have brought a worthwhile veteran in return, perhaps a very good one if also sent out with Morris.  Or he could have been extended as Kyrie insurance, making it so we wouldn’t have sought out Kemba.  But Rozier hated being in limbo in a walk year after having proven himself the spring before, and keeping him that way was both a bad way to use the asset or construct the roster.