How Many More Years Do We Give Ainge to Win a Championship?

[GreenFaith1819]

However long it takes....he's kept us competitive and we have a coveted youth core.

Can't account for the crazy that is/was Kyrie AND GH's injury and subsequent recovery period.

All you can do in the NBA is stay competitive...you do THAT and you set yourself up for success when the time comes.

[gpap]

This team right now, isnt going to win any titles in the upcoming years

Funny part though is one right move and we could easily be championship contenders. I think the frustrating part is we're not as far off as you might think.

[gpap]

How many more seasons do we give Ainge to win a championship? It has been almost a dozen years. 2? 3? 4? Another 11?

I, for one, am going to be sorely disappointed if we do not win a championship by 2022, particularly if the Lakers somehow win another. I think Ainge should be given three more years/seasons to win a championship before it’s time to move on. The Kyrie thing is not his fault. But if we continue to fail 3 more years, that would be one championship in how many seasons?

Your not going to give him anything because you're not a Celtics Owner.   You can be disappointed until you are blue in the face and crying tears and the owners won't care.

You live in title town and your post comes off as a entitled spoiled brat quite frankly.

Actually, there's nothing entitled about being a fan and having high expectations of your team on a yearly basis. If someone wants to sheepishly kiss Ainge's butt and buy everything he sells, that's their prerogative. Just like expecting a championship caliber team on a year basis is the prerogative of other fans. One isn't any more righteous than the other.

[PhoSita]

Fans are allowed to expect whatever they want from their favorite team.

Doesn't make it reasonable.

Winning titles in the NBA almost invariably means having one of the four or five most important players in the league on your team for multiple years.

If you want to blame Ainge for the fact that the Celts haven't found a way to get LeBron or KD or Steph or kawhi on the roster these last ten years, that's your prerogative.  But that would mean that most other GMs in the league should also be fired.

[hwangjini_1]

How many more seasons do we give Ainge to win a championship? It has been almost a dozen years. 2? 3? 4? Another 11?

I, for one, am going to be sorely disappointed if we do not win a championship by 2022, particularly if the Lakers somehow win another. I think Ainge should be given three more years/seasons to win a championship before it’s time to move on. The Kyrie thing is not his fault. But if we continue to fail 3 more years, that would be one championship in how many seasons?

Your not going to give him anything because you're not a Celtics Owner.   You can be disappointed until you are blue in the face and crying tears and the owners won't care.

You live in title town and your post comes off as a entitled spoiled brat quite frankly.

Actually, there's nothing entitled about being a fan and having high expectations of your team on a yearly basis. If someone wants to sheepishly kiss Ainge's butt and buy everything he sells, that's their prerogative. Just like expecting a championship caliber team on a year basis is the prerogative of other fans. One isn't any more righteous than the other.

i had no idea that we lived in such a dichotomous world, occupied only by polar opposites. thank you for the clarification. 

[SparzWizard]

11 more years until our next 22 year drought.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Fans are allowed to expect whatever they want from their favorite team.

Doesn't make it reasonable.

Winning titles in the NBA almost invariably means having one of the four or five most important players in the league on your team for multiple years.

If you want to blame Ainge for the fact that the Celts haven't found a way to get LeBron or KD or Steph or kawhi on the roster these last ten years, that's your prerogative.  But that would mean that most other GMs in the league should also be fired.

I mean, how many GMs have been GMs for the past 11 years without winning a single championship? Ainge is the only one I can think of.

If Ainge does not win us a championship in the next three years, that will be one title in nearly 20 years. There has to be a ton of qualified GMs who would kill to be GM of the Boston Celtics. We need a new direction in 3-5 years if we don’t win another under Danny. I still trust the guy and want to give him three years, but I’m not sure I want to see us continue with him unless we at least make a Finals appearance again in the next three years. Is that really asking too much?

[PhoSita]

Fans are allowed to expect whatever they want from their favorite team.

Doesn't make it reasonable.

Winning titles in the NBA almost invariably means having one of the four or five most important players in the league on your team for multiple years.

If you want to blame Ainge for the fact that the Celts haven't found a way to get LeBron or KD or Steph or kawhi on the roster these last ten years, that's your prerogative.  But that would mean that most other GMs in the league should also be fired.

I mean, how many GMs have been GMs for the past 11 years without winning a single championship? Ainge is the only one I can think of.

If Ainge does not win us a championship in the next three years, that will be one title in nearly 20 years. There has to be a ton of qualified GMs who would kill to be GM of the Boston Celtics. We need a new direction in 3-5 years if we don’t win another under Danny. I still trust the guy and want to give him three years, but I’m not sure I want to see us continue with him unless we at least make a Finals appearance again in the next three years. Is that really asking too much?

Yes. Your metric is not reasonable for judging GM performance.


You're saying you are going to rate a GM entirely based on results when the results are not within the GMs control beyond a certain point.  You want the GM to just "find a way" to make a title, or even a Finals appearance, happen. 


The only reasonable way of looking at it in my opinion is to look at the decisions the  makes, individually and in aggregate.

To me, Ainge has not done a perfect job but he's definitely above average. The Celts could have been much worse over the last decade.


I just don't think it makes sense to be all "championship or bust" in a sport that requires that you snag a generational talent in order to have a decent chance of reaching that stage.

[blink]

Fans are allowed to expect whatever they want from their favorite team.

Doesn't make it reasonable.

Winning titles in the NBA almost invariably means having one of the four or five most important players in the league on your team for multiple years.

If you want to blame Ainge for the fact that the Celts haven't found a way to get LeBron or KD or Steph or kawhi on the roster these last ten years, that's your prerogative.  But that would mean that most other GMs in the league should also be fired.

This is such a reasonable and logical post I have to give you a TP.

[Ogaju]

This team right now, isnt going to win any titles in the upcoming years

You'll be surprised.

This current Celtics team will be better than last season's Celtics team.

One move and this current Celtics team will be a contender.

The upcoming season could really go in any direction. I don’t think the Kyrie trade reflects poorly on Ainge.  I think he’d have been a fool not to pull the trigger. Sometimes the kind of “due diligence” that produces 20-20 foresight is impossible. I think Danny probably knew the risks in trading for Kyrie and probably thought it was worth it. Good gambles don’t always pan out.

But... despite not getting AD and losing KI, had the C’s kept Al Horford I think many here would be thinking the C’s would be in contention this year.   This supports the idea that the C’s may indeed be a move away. 

Horford was the bigger loss (over Kyrie). Not sure that Al could have been had if DA/Wyc had offered more, but if he proves to be the difference for Philly this year, hindsight may be filled with regret.

I disagree.

The time has come for Horford and the Celts to part ways.

Losing Horford is a blessing in disguise.

Twice the Celts went to the east finals against Lebron and the Cavs and twice Horford failed to rise to the occasion.

Horford's a great player, no doubt, but he doesn't step up in the big moments, like Game 7 of the east finals in 2018.

The Hawks of Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and Horford also never reached the east finals.

I'm just not sold on extending Horford's time in Boston.

the 76ers have not done well in dealings with Boston lately. The Fultz deal and the deal that fetched Carsen Edwards to Boston. If it turns out that they got Horford because of the CBS effect it could be another disappointed for Philly in a play that involves Celtic personnel.

[Ogaju]

I still believe that back in 2016, the Celts should not have signed Horford if KD wasn't coming to Boston.

Yeah that was a weird trade because Cs believed getting Horford was the key to landing Durant, but in came Jerry West.

[mctyson]

They have been in contention, for the most part, the last decade.  That is really what matters the most.

[TheSundanceKid]

My reply to this is always.. Who replaces him? There are few in the league better and I don't see a Jerry West or Masai Ujiri coming to Boston. More likely you get someone like Kevin Pritchard and then you're sitting there like "what happened?"

[DooVoo]

If every fanbase wanted GMs gone for not winning a Championship, 29 teams would be firing their GMs every year.

[PhoSita]

Here are the key transactions that have led to titles in every season since the last time the Celts were plausibly in contention:


2013 - Heat draft Wade in 03, sign LeBron and Bosh in 10.

2014 - Spurs draft Duncan in 97, draft Manu in 99, draft Parker in 01, draft Kawhi in 11

2015 - Warriors draft Curry in 09, draft Klay in 11, draft Draymond in 12, signed Iguodala in 2013

2016 - Cavs drafted LeBron in 03, drafted Kyrie in 11, traded for Love in 14, re-signed LeBron in 14.

2017, 2018 - Warriors signed KD in 16

2019 - Raptors traded for Kawhi in 18


Which of the above should Ainge have been in on? 

Is it Ainge's fault for not signing KD in 2016? Or does Ainge deserve credit that the team even had a shot at signing KD just three years after blowing up the Big 3?

I think the only one that you can really fault Ainge for is not trading for Kawhi. Hindsight is 20/20 on that. A lot of GMs didn't want to take that risk. The Raptors had very little to lose. Kawhi ended up leaving them after one year just like many people expected / feared. If not for a few lucky bounces against Philly that trade might look like a really bad gamble right now.

The above is simply meant to underscore how silly it is to penalize a GM for not winning a title. Lots of things Ainge has done well and poorly. A lot of smart moves that did and did not pay off. A lot of misses that could have made a difference if Ainge had chosen differently.

But title / no title is a really dumb metric.