Is Danny's legacy on the line here?

[Clench123]

Would it hurt his legacy if he fail to get us back to contending with all the assets we have?

[Mr October]

I think ainge has earned a 3 year cushion to reload as a lotto team, before he really needs to get back to winning. Between all the picks he has acquired and the continued development of the young guys on the team, it will be exciting to see which direction ainge takes the team over the next few years.

It's too early to talk legacy i think. There is so much luck involved with the NBA. What if Popovich never won the Tim Duncan lottery? How would he have been judged since then? Parker, ginobili and a stack of 3 and D guys aren't gonna win you much without an all time power forward / center to lean on.

[PaulAllen]

First he built a championship team then got as much as he could of got from players he could get no more from..

He is just playing a waiting game... when the right deal comes across he will stomp on it..mark my word

This team will be legit in 1-2 years

[WeMadeIt17]

I think Danny will make a key move this off-season to make us a playoff team, and then by 2015 contenders. We have pieces and picks to get a lot of out a team that doesn't want to let a key free agent go for nothing.

[Sully7]

Ainge has to make a misstep before his "legacy" is effected and the "clock stats ticking".  Every move he has made so far has been sound.

Drafting Sully
KG and the Truth for an unreal amount of daft picks
Doc for picks
Drafting KO who is top 10 easy in this rookie class
Stevens coaching selection
Trading Brooks, Crawford and Lee
Keeping Contracts that will come off the books (Hump, Bass, Bogans)
Keeping Rondo and letting him slowly come back to form.

New England sports fans are getting spoiled in the last decade….people should start complaining when we have players named Montross, Earl, Declerq, Gugliota, old Kenny Anderson, Old Dominique.

[Donoghus]

He already has a title to his credit and put forward a top notch team for a 5 year window.

Barring some catastrophic, unforseen events...his legacy is pretty secure already.  He'd have to burn some bridges or go Billy King on us to really twist the narrative on him.

Personally, I'd love to see a "Danny" in the rafters at some point.  If he can get the Celtics back into championship contention, that may very well happen.

[hpantazo]

Would it hurt his legacy if he fail to get us back to contending with all the assets we have?

The answer to your question is in your post IMO. We have all these assets because of Danny. He has already made the right moves to put us in a great position to reload after getting all he could out of a championship team that he built. The KG, Pierce, and Doc trades were fantastic moves. Not giving players large contracts was also great. Getting players like Sullinger, Olynyk, and Bradley was also great. Danny has nothing to worry about.  It's the other gms that should be concerned. For example, with the future Nets picks, we can even basically let the nets tank for us and collect the rewards, or cash them in for top quality vets.

[Roy H.]

Unless he spends half a decade morphing into Joe Dumars, I think his legacy is secure.

[Moranis]

Unless he spends half a decade morphing into Joe Dumars, I think his legacy is secure.

Joe Dumars, even when Detroit was winning a title, was no where near the GM that Danny has been.  Even back then JD was messing things up badly, he really did luck his way into a title and then promptly did nothing to secure multiple titles and put Detroit into a 10 year tailspin they are still trying to recover from.  JD has been drafting a bit better lately, but now his trades have gone to crap and his free agent signings have always been awful.

[celty86]

Is this serious?

[guava_wrench]

Every GMs legacy is always on the line.

On the other hand, it will take a string of horrible moves to ruin his legacy. Most owners (unlike Dolan) understand that there are no guarantees when you make personnel decisions. There is always risk involved. This is why no single bad move can be taken too seriously. There has to be a clear pattern (Dumars?).

If Ainge were to do something that made no player want to come to Boston, that could force ownership's hand to project a new image. I don't think Ainge has done anything like that yet. If he did something to offend all his players and make them leave town (like Ray Allen), ownership might want to head that off at the pass my making a change (like Howard and SVG).

[NYDan]

Ainge's legacy as a player and GM in Celtics history seems secure to me. Year 1 of a rebuilding era after a championship run affords him quite a bit of rope as well - he's got the freedom to set things up for the long term without fear of losing his job over wins/losses in the immediate future.