Danny is A Great GM. Love the Moves

[MVP]

We are 2 years into our rebuild. The first year we tanked. The second year were mediocre. I don't see this being stuck in "perpetual mediocrity" people are talking about. We are still early in the offseason and there a whole season to go before you can say whether next season we will be mediocre or not.

Danny is being patient and not giving up all of our assets for a quick fix which will in fact leave us in mediocrity. The future Nets / Mavs / Grizz / etc. picks are like a stocks. Right now they don't hold a lot of value for other teams since they could be in the 20s as much as they could be in the lottery...there's a lot of uncertainty at this point. Of course we will need some luck just like every team who becomes a contender and hope at least one of those picks is top 5 or something like 2 picks in the top 12. If we can't get a stud with what we have now I'd rather wait for the stock of our assets to grow instead of cashing all the chips in right now for a borderline all star level player.

Johnson / Jerebko are solid veterans who will provide leadership and experience to a young roster. As we are seeing this offseason, it is hard to convince great players to come to your team if you suck. Their contracts will become assets starting this trade line as we can take in >$17M while the other team can just waive them without having to pay (ie. if a team is trading a superstar and wants to attach a bad contract along we would be able to accommodate that without sending a bad contract back).

Our goal this year is to improve from last season, develop our young players / increase their value and hope we get a little lucky with our stockpile of picks which will put us in a better position to land a star player the next time around.

[PhoSita]

Danny's creativity as a transactional GM is really really good. I think we'll see more action this week / month that will be 2-3 year plan stuff.

Now, what I'm interested to see is whether Danny improves his record as a draft GM. He's been good, but hardly great. What is Rozier turns into a starter? Then there's a market for him or Smart. What if Mickey can be a 8-man rotation lunch pail guy? Then I think the Cs can get a little value for Olynyk (in a league obsessed with shooting at the 4) or Sully (still has a clear NBA role when healthy).

I think Ainge is smart. Today was not his battleground. He understood that, with teams seeing a rising cap and going nuts. I respect his creativity (non-guaranteed deals) and restraint. And I like bringing JJ back for $5mil.

Like I've said, I like the deals in a vacuum.  I'm just really confounded as to the long term plan here.

If we're hoping on guys taken in the mid to late 1st round turning into starters, then that's a tough place to be.  It happens, of course, but it's not like Ainge has an awesome track record of finding those guys. 

He's really good at finding guys who can definitely play.  Role players.  But does he have a good eye for true diamonds in the rough?  Not so sure about that. 

He found Big Al and Rondo.  Guys who never truly overcame their biggest flaws but found a way to become very valuable and sought after nonetheless.  It's been almost a decade since Ainge struck gold like that in the draft, though.


The thing I keep going back to with what Ainge did in 2007, though, is that he never would have been able to manage it if he didn't have Pierce on the roster.  No Pierce, and KG has no interest in coming to Boston.  Where's our Paul Pierce coming from?

[cltc5]

I'm sick of hearing about assets.  Our assets might as well be assets sitting  on the bench because thats what they're amounting to. How bout we get off our assets and move our assets!  Is there any other freakin team in the league coveting draft picks as much as Boston and philly?  At least philly gets something for theirs.  We get more assets to move up to get more assets to trade for assets!  Gaaaaaaah! 

[ssspence]

Danny's creativity as a transactional GM is really really good. I think we'll see more action this week / month that will be 2-3 year plan stuff.

Now, what I'm interested to see is whether Danny improves his record as a draft GM. He's been good, but hardly great. What is Rozier turns into a starter? Then there's a market for him or Smart. What if Mickey can be a 8-man rotation lunch pail guy? Then I think the Cs can get a little value for Olynyk (in a league obsessed with shooting at the 4) or Sully (still has a clear NBA role when healthy).

I think Ainge is smart. Today was not his battleground. He understood that, with teams seeing a rising cap and going nuts. I respect his creativity (non-guaranteed deals) and restraint. And I like bringing JJ back for $5mil.

Like I've said, I like the deals in a vacuum.  I'm just really confounded as to the long term plan here.

If we're hoping on guys taken in the mid to late 1st round turning into starters, then that's a tough place to be.  It happens, of course, but it's not like Ainge has an awesome track record of finding those guys. 

He's really good at finding guys who can definitely play.  Role players.  But does he have a good eye for true diamonds in the rough?  Not so sure about that. 

He found Big Al and Rondo.  Guys who never truly overcame their biggest flaws but found a way to become very valuable and sought after nonetheless.  It's been almost a decade since Ainge struck gold like that in the draft, though.


The thing I keep going back to with what Ainge did in 2007, though, is that he never would have been able to manage it if he didn't have Pierce on the roster.  No Pierce, and KG has no interest in coming to Boston.  Where's our Paul Pierce coming from?

We don't have our Pierce right now. But fact is we're well positioned to get a better cornerstone than Pierce was. And if we can get that guy? I'm confident Ainge can get other complimentary guys here. 

[wiley]

I absolutely love the current Celtics team.  One of the highlights periods of my time watching them since the early 80's.  I love the management, the coach, the nature of the players the C's are bringing aboard (IQ and toughness) , their style of play,  The team will be above 500 this year, not sure how far above.  So many assets...the bigger stuff isn't far off.  I'm really glad the our GM doesn't cave to the impatient wing of the fan base, or arrogantly move players around like a fantasy GM with his virtual reality team...I guess people forgot all about the Gaston years?  To say what's going on now with management is better than anything in recent memory is an understatement of gigantic proportion.

I guess some of you had a bad day.  I find that weird but chin up, things are absolutely going the right direction.

My biggest current disappointments:  Winslow on Miami (Winslow to Charlotte wouldn't have stung much) and Marc Gasol if he doesn't choose Boston.  Didn't care about Love at all...

How's that Kool aid bro? IND and MIA at full strength may knock us out of playoff contention and greedy ownership has set us up for years of mediocrity. Wish I could share your optimism, but this is easily the worst  possible outcome for our rebuild. Meanwhile, MIN already has a better core than us moving forward, and LA and NYK will always surpass us in the only avenue we left ourselves to find talent in free agency.

Our draft picks are worthless.

Free agents don't want to come here.

We're a "dirty" team now after taking out Love.

BS is too good to tank and he will leave if we plan to.

Expiring contracts aren't worth what they used to be in the current NBA.

And to top it all off Lopez and Young are resigning with Brooklyn.

I'm glad you're having fun watching this team, I like watching them too, but we have no other options than trading for unwanted players and overpaying mediocre free agents to climb to our plateau of mediocrity.

Thank you greedy ownership. Playoffs, yay! $!

Yes, the sky is falling. But, hey, at least we have a fun team to watch right?

And so how was your life during the Gaston years, 18 years since the last title with no end in sight and no vision.  You went underground completely?

[Hemingway]

The hard part about all this is that it really feels like another opportunity to hit a home run missed. We were a long shot on the big names, but it still stings. It's hard not to remember the sting of the years from bird to KG

But Ainge did the right thing. If you can't hit a home run at least get on base. The worst thing would have been to get no one. We got someone. Johnson, I think, will have a contract with a team option and that is the reason for the slight overpay. Either way, we just picked up another asset.

I just really hope that we can trade for a star player soon. There are not many opportunities left before everyone has money to spend. Don't be surprised if we over pay a little on a trade.

[SHAQATTACK]

I ve got to the point

I have more

Faith

In my house

Cat  ......... Than Danny

[Chris22]

We were 24-12 in our last 36 games, and we are a better team than that now.

[BDeCosta26]

I absolutely love the current Celtics team.  One of the highlights periods of my time watching them since the early 80's.  I love the management, the coach, the nature of the players the C's are bringing aboard (IQ and toughness) , their style of play,  The team will be above 500 this year, not sure how far above.  So many assets...the bigger stuff isn't far off.  I'm really glad the our GM doesn't cave to the impatient wing of the fan base, or arrogantly move players around like a fantasy GM with his virtual reality team...I guess people forgot all about the Gaston years?  To say what's going on now with management is better than anything in recent memory is an understatement of gigantic proportion.

I guess some of you had a bad day.  I find that weird but chin up, things are absolutely going the right direction.

My biggest current disappointments:  Winslow on Miami (Winslow to Charlotte wouldn't have stung much) and Marc Gasol if he doesn't choose Boston.  Didn't care about Love at all...

How's that Kool aid bro? IND and MIA at full strength may knock us out of playoff contention and greedy ownership has set us up for years of mediocrity. Wish I could share your optimism, but this is easily the worst  possible outcome for our rebuild. Meanwhile, MIN already has a better core than us moving forward, and LA and NYK will always surpass us in the only avenue we left ourselves to find talent in free agency.

Our draft picks are worthless.

Free agents don't want to come here.

We're a "dirty" team now after taking out Love.

BS is too good to tank and he will leave if we plan to.

Expiring contracts aren't worth what they used to be in the current NBA.

And to top it all off Lopez and Young are resigning with Brooklyn.

I'm glad you're having fun watching this team, I like watching them too, but we have no other options than trading for unwanted players and overpaying mediocre free agents to climb to our plateau of mediocrity.

Thank you greedy ownership. Playoffs, yay! $!

Yes, the sky is falling. But, hey, at least we have a fun team to watch right?

Why are our draft picks worthless? They're never worthless. Especially in a league that's about to put a premium on players who produce highly on cheap contracts. Cause Charlotte turned down Ainge's deal? They were literally mocked and laughed at my all of their peers for turning down that deal. But they were the only ones left to deal with. Sacto was taking WCS to appease DMC after that whole fiasco, Denver had Mudiay just fall in their laps, Detroit wasn't looking to deal after they filled their stretch 4 hole with the Ilysova trade, and Miami probably would've traded if anyone but Winslow was there at #10.

The picks are still valuable. Especially the Brooklyn ones. Even if they do resign Lopez and Young, your gonna bet on Lopez staying healthy? I wouldn't. If people are gonna try to say "Oh look at how much the East improved, the C's will never make the playoffs!" Then the Nets sure as heck ain't making it either. So that leaves us with two lottery picks. Isn't that what you always wanted?