Think Ainge has a bad image?

[celticpride1]

Do you guys think players around the NBA think Danny has a bad image? As fAr as wanting to come to Boston? After the IT thing? It’s nothing personal it’s business. Anybody would have made that upgrade 2 years ago. Now looking back even if Kyrie bolts we aren’t locked in on a bad contract with IT going forward. Just wanted to know everybody thoughts.

[gouki88]

Casual NBA fans definitely seem to have a bad idea of him. You can see from comments on Instagram posts and the like where there'll be something about Kyrie potentially leaving us in FA, people will comment:

This is what they get for doing what they did to IT!

I dunno if it stretches to players, but who knows?

[NKY fan]

Some players probably think that’s the type of manager they want. Doing everything he can to improve the team.
Some players probably view him as not a loyal man. You can’t blame them for thinking that.

Almost all fans of other teams respect him but those same fans love the failures of Danny during the last season and potentially this summer

[BitterJim]

People said the same thing about trading away Pierce/KG and the trade rumors around Rondo/Allen, but then we signed Al and Hayward. Stuff like that affects fans way more than it does players

That won't stop people from saying that IT is the reason if Kyrie ends up leaving, though

[Celtics4ever]

When he ever had a good image?   He was a whiner as a player in most people eyes.   As GM is a shrewd calculating cold-hearted person that wins trades after trade.

[ozgod]

Casual NBA fans definitely seem to have a bad idea of him. You can see from comments on Instagram posts and the like where there'll be something about Kyrie potentially leaving us in FA, people will comment:

This is what they get for doing what they did to IT!

I dunno if it stretches to players, but who knows?

Fans are biased. If IT had been a bad player they’d have been begging Ainge to ship him out of town, injury or no.

[jambr380]

Obviously we all know what AD's dad said about Danny, but AD should be looking at the IT situation and thinking, "Man, I am impressed that Danny had the foresight to upgrade IT - a guy who may no longer be a rotational player - to a young, perennial, All-Star in Kyrie Irving." All players should think this way. When you play on a team, you want the best talent around you, not players who are massively overpaid and not producing.

Danny is always working to find ways to upgrade our roster. People talk about how they did IT wrong, but nobody is mentioning how they've stood behind Hayward. I do believe Danny has a bad image and I don't at all think it is fair.

[gouki88]

Casual NBA fans definitely seem to have a bad idea of him. You can see from comments on Instagram posts and the like where there'll be something about Kyrie potentially leaving us in FA, people will comment:

This is what they get for doing what they did to IT!

I dunno if it stretches to players, but who knows?

Fans are biased. If IT had been a bad player they’d have been begging Ainge to ship him out of town, injury or no.

Oh definitely, but this is just something I've seen both in Celtics circles and in general NBA circles

[ozgod]

Casual NBA fans definitely seem to have a bad idea of him. You can see from comments on Instagram posts and the like where there'll be something about Kyrie potentially leaving us in FA, people will comment:

This is what they get for doing what they did to IT!

I dunno if it stretches to players, but who knows?

Fans are biased. If IT had been a bad player they’d have been begging Ainge to ship him out of town, injury or no.

Oh definitely, but this is just something I've seen both in Celtics circles and in general NBA circles

Yep he definitely has a reputation for being ruthless, which I suppose is a good thing in his job.

[Moranis]

Even before IT I openly questioned on this board why a major free agent would sign here (it was also before Hayward and Horford signed so obviously my concerns were alleviated a bit).  My reasoning was simple, Ainge has pretty consistently said and more importantly done things that could easily turn off players.  I mean he was here for a few months and traded the face of the franchise (Toine) because he didn't like his game and it was a terrible trade.  A few years later he nearly traded the face of the franchise again for a draft pick (the Pierce for 3 to draft Chris Paul trade).  He refused to give Posey an extra year because it was good business.  He traded Ray Allen, only for Memphis to re-neg last minute, and then tried to sign Allen cheaply forcing him out the door.  The year after that he again traded the face of the franchise along with KG.  A couple of years later he again traded the face of the franchise (Rondo), which he has repeated again with Thomas.  And while those moves were mostly sound business decisions they were absolutely moves that were disloyal to the players.  Couple that with Ainge saying things like I would have traded Larry Bird if I was Red, and you can begin to see why people like Anthony Davis' father wouldn't want his son to play for an organization run by Ainge.  It is also why, I have been saying that Ainge can't really trade Hayward unless Hayward demands a trade (I think he could trade Horford if the team was entering a rebuild and shipped him off to a contender of Horford's choosing).  It would just be a horrible look to sign a major free agent and then ship him out after 2 years because he got injured while playing for your franchise, especially when you are known as Trader Danny, a guy that would trade his mother if it was the right business decision.

[wdleehi]

Does IT wanting to come back and talking about how great the Boston organization was to him when he was going through so much help with this image to other players?

[Rosco917]

The IT thing was a smart basketball decision, even if we lose Irving. It's a business.

[timpiker]

Sure DA has a bad reputation because he's willing to trade his mother to make the team better.  Now, as a C's fan, what do I want?  Someone that is loyal and keeps over the hill players out of loyalty or someone who'd do anything to make the team better and bring Banner 18?  Seems like an easy answer to me.  So for all of you who think Danny's wrong, maybe you'd better re-think your fav team.

[ETNCeltics]

Nonsense. Every player in the league knows they can be traded at any time, and many of them have been.

It's not rocket science. There are 2 huge market, huge $$ teams in the NBA, the Lakers and Knicks. Davis was able to force his freedom at a time (and probably this was a huge motivation for him doing so) when both teams had cap space to add a star to play with him, or in the case of LAL, already had a star on board. Players know they can make more $$ and have more opportunity in those cities. We're always going to come in 2nd to either of those teams for FAs, unless that isn't an issue for the player.

The Celtics are nicely positioned generally speaking. We're a big market team, we're just not LA or NY. We've got a GM with a track record of success, and a head coach players around the league rave about.

IMO, Kyrie isn't much of a bellwether when it comes to this organization, he's a really weird guy. And considering that Jeff Goodman said Celtics players told him Kyrie is difficult to play with and sucks the air out of the locker room, I have doubts whether Ainge's interest in re-signing Kyrie is even genuine.

[PhoSita]

I think it depends on who you ask and how you define "bad."  I think everybody understands that Danny is an aggressive, creative, shrewd manager of assets.  He's built multiple 50+ win teams with many different configurations of players.  He's engineered many teams that went on deep playoff runs.

At the same time, people understand that he treats players like assets first and people second.  I think those same people recognize that it's Danny's job to do that, but it still rubs people the wrong way.

Certain sections of the social media crowd especially dislike that because of the optics of an older white Mormon managing a Boston sports team treating mostly black and brown players like commodities.  I know it's a crass oversimplification, but I think that's a really significant factor for some people, especially the most vocal "extremely online" ones.