Ringer Article: "The Almost Ainge All-Stars"

[Donoghus]

If nothing else, its an interesting read.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/4/6/22369749/danny-ainge-celtics-almost-trades-history

[letsgoblue86]

Harden should be here twice. Danny wanted harden in the Perkins deal but OKC wouldn’t part so we got Jeff Green.

[Big333223]

Oof. I hate that article. It's just a list of high-profile players who have been traded in the last few years framed as some kind of take about Ainge.

It's all trades the Celtics were "linked" to or "rumored" to be a part of. Most of these rumors are created by the sports media. If 20 teams call the Bulls about Jimmy Butler and Ainge is one of them, the headline says "The Celtics are in talks..."

And what is the take, exactly? It's not that he's bad at trading ("All things told, the Celtics have been a relevant squad for almost 15 consecutive years on the strength of Ainge’s trading capabilities."). But it's also all about his failures at trading.

It kind of wants to be some kind of media critique ("This is the legend of Almost Ainge. Even when the Celtics fail, we hear about how hard their general manager is working.") but is itself doing the thing is seems to want to criticize: bolstering Ainge's mythology.

It's a good example of why I don't read the Ringer. There's no reporting here. No new information. And not even a new take or perspective on something we know. It's just content and it's content build on the foundation of other, poorly or inaccurately reported content.

[Boris Badenov]

What a waste of space that article is. If Ainge never ever tried to trade for anyone, our "Almost All Star" team would be trash. And the point would be?

[wdleehi]

Where is the article of the GM that didn't try or check in on the prices of good players?

[tstorey_97]

Not sure who could have done better with the current roster made up of Ainge's picks.

The Garnett trade one of the better trades in history.

The Brooklyn trade...home run.

Smart pick...not that bad beyond the bricks.

Irving trade...what else are you going to do? "You want Kyrie?"
Of course you want him.

Hayward building block attempt?

Brown & Tatum and dodging Fultz.

All in for Davis which was correct but failed.

Now he has Robert and Pritchard.

The issue with the media is their ratings spike when they talk about bad stuff....things going wrong...pointing fingers...thus, they get rewarded for this kind of reporting.

The team is not complete, but, it has a good shot at the "one player away" principle.

Ainge has a better structure than Philly and the Bucks while being equal to Pat Riley's team.

He traded Garnett, Pierce and Fultz for this team.

[perks-a-beast]

There was, if im remembering correctly, two other instances of Danny trying to trade for Chris Paul. I believe one was before the 2005 draft where Ainge was trying to trade up for him. The other was back in..2011 maybe where it was confirmed years later he was looking to build a package around Rondo for Paul.

Man, CP3 would have made a great Celtic...and i'd hate those State Farm commercials just a little less.

Kawhi was the only other guy named here who i really wanted...I lost interest in AD when his moronic dad started bad mouthing the franchise, and probably echoing his sons sentiments.

[celts10]

There was, if im remembering correctly, two other instances of Danny trying to trade for Chris Paul. I believe one was before the 2005 draft where Ainge was trying to trade up for him. The other was back in..2011 maybe where it was confirmed years later he was looking to build a package around Rondo for Paul.

Man, CP3 would have made a great Celtic

If I recall, rumors floated at the time of how CP3 wasn't going to re-sign in Boston if he got traded here. Perhaps if Ainge got lucky with free agency that year, we might have been able to change his mind on wanting to come and stay. Don't know how realistic but imagine a 2011-12 starting lineup of:

KG
David West/Brandon Bass
Pierce/Pietrus
Allen/Bradley
CP3

[BringToughnessBack]

Thought this would mention Curry too. Those were some crazy rumors flying that Rondo for Curry was a Golden State heist job on us! Look at this gem I found from a writer saying if Curry is the best we could get, what a joke it would be on us! 😂

Wonder how close that trade was to happening and how it would have changed entire trajectory of this team.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1087866-boston-celtics-trade-rumors-stephen-curry-not-a-long-term-answer-for-cs

[Donoghus]

Thought this would mention Curry too. Those were some crazy rumors flying that Rondo for Curry was a Golden State heist job on us! Look at this gem I found from a writer saying if Curry is the best we could get, what a joke it would be on us! 😂

Wonder how close that trade was to happening and how it would have changed entire trajectory of this team.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1087866-boston-celtics-trade-rumors-stephen-curry-not-a-long-term-answer-for-cs

I remember that being a big debate on here at the time.  The biggest issue was Curry, at the time, had some red flag injury concerns.  I think it was ankles.

Definitely a crazy scenario to consider, in retrospect, though.

[tenn_smoothie]

There was, if im remembering correctly, two other instances of Danny trying to trade for Chris Paul. I believe one was before the 2005 draft where Ainge was trying to trade up for him. The other was back in..2011 maybe where it was confirmed years later he was looking to build a package around Rondo for Paul.

Man, CP3 would have made a great Celtic...and i'd hate those State Farm commercials just a little less.

Kawhi was the only other guy named here who i really wanted...I lost interest in AD when his moronic dad started bad mouthing the franchise, and probably echoing his sons sentiments.

Acquire Chris Paul and keep Perk and we win the title in 2011, though Rondo carried those Celtic teams in the playoffs after 2009.
Paul on the current team would work wonders.

[Muzzy66]

There was, if im remembering correctly, two other instances of Danny trying to trade for Chris Paul. I believe one was before the 2005 draft where Ainge was trying to trade up for him. The other was back in..2011 maybe where it was confirmed years later he was looking to build a package around Rondo for Paul.

Man, CP3 would have made a great Celtic...and i'd hate those State Farm commercials just a little less.

Kawhi was the only other guy named here who i really wanted...I lost interest in AD when his moronic dad started bad mouthing the franchise, and probably echoing his sons sentiments.

Acquire Chris Paul and keep Perk and we win the title in 2011, though Rondo carried those Celtic teams in the playoffs after 2009.
Paul on the current team would work wonders.

I do agree - I absolutely love Chris Paul's game and his toughness, and I do think he'd transform the team.  My own worry with acquiring CP3 is that he's historically been EXTREMELY fragile and his body seems to have an unfortunate tendency to fall apart at the most critical times (e.g. in the middle of a crucial Playoff series) and he's just not especially dependable. 

I know Kemba has his knee issues and is missing games because of that, but as far as i'm aware those missed games are more of a precaution rather then actual "he cant play".   When Paul gets hit with injuries they tend to be the season ending kind. 

The other concern is the money he's owned combined with the fact that he's 35 and might only have 1 or 2 years of high level production left in him before throwing in the towel and retiring.   Whatever you give up for Paul, you need to do so with the awareness that you probably wont keep him at  his current production levels for very long. 

It's a tough call.  Previously I was pretty hard against this move because of the risks involved...but right now if given the chance I'd have to think about it.  There really are very few PG's in the NBA (not just now, but ever) who could impact a team and make the guys around him better the way Chris Paul can.  I have him pretty close to top 5 all-time among point guards.

[Muzzy66]

Not sure who could have done better with the current roster made up of Ainge's picks.

The Garnett trade one of the better trades in history.

The Brooklyn trade...home run.

Smart pick...not that bad beyond the bricks.

Irving trade...what else are you going to do? "You want Kyrie?"
Of course you want him.

Hayward building block attempt?

Brown & Tatum and dodging Fultz.

All in for Davis which was correct but failed.

Now he has Robert and Pritchard.

The issue with the media is their ratings spike when they talk about bad stuff....things going wrong...pointing fingers...thus, they get rewarded for this kind of reporting.

The team is not complete, but, it has a good shot at the "one player away" principle.

Ainge has a better structure than Philly and the Bucks while being equal to Pat Riley's team.

He traded Garnett, Pierce and Fultz for this team.

Agree 100%

Everybody hates on Ainge based on the moves he MISSED on, but I don't think that's fair.  Most GM's fail on most of their moves.  The key point to me is how many moves Ainge has HIT on - I think his hit-to-miss ratio is far better then probably 90% of all NBA GM's. 

Most GM's manage one or two good moves in a decade.  Ainge this past decade has had probably close to 10 moves that were overwhelmingly positive from one perspective of another.  Even smaller "under the radar" moves like bringing in Crowder, Isaiah Thomas and Evan Turner, drafting Rozier.  These aren't home run plays, but they were overwhelmingly positive moves when you look at the impact those guys have had vs what people expected of them at the time they were acquired.  Hell even Jamaal Crawford managed a productive role in Boston. 

And lets not forget that Ainge managed to transform a team from complete rebuild to playoffs within like 2-3 seasons, which is unheard of.  Philly INTENTIONALLY tanked for several years and still have struggled to replicate Ainge's success on a year-by-year basis. 

[PhoSita]

The Ringer is staffed with people who think it's hilarious to dunk on the Celtics.  Not exactly surprising that they'd put out "content" like this.

[Celtics4ever]

That stuff is pretty much common knowledge.

Folks like to kick the Celtics when they're down.

And lets not forget that Ainge managed to transform a team from complete rebuild to playoffs within like 2-3 seasons, which is unheard of.  Philly INTENTIONALLY tanked for several years and still have struggled to replicate Ainge's success on a year-by-year basis.

Who is better now?  Whose strategy worked?

I think Philly is as of today but I do think we can beat them in a series but we are going to have to make it a running game that will take Embiid out of the game because of his gimp knee and conditioning.   It won't be easy but we have to try to run him into the dirt.

But Philly makes moves while Ainge as of late decided to see what we have this year.   It was bound to catch up to us sooner or later.