Ainge interview: Last year his fault, he should have cleaned out roster

[gouki88]

It's nice to see Danny admit what a vocal minority of posters (myself included) were arguing all last season: That the team as constructed was fundamentally flawed.

But since Danny doesn't do anything without producing a congratulatory media campaign I'm guessing this interview is much more strategically designed to promote what's about to happen this season - namely that he's going to address the Hayward problem.

Buckle up, fireworks incoming.

Do you DreamCeltics?

Rofl. TP

[Vanzandt]

It's one thing to say we should have cleared up our roster, but it's a completely different thing to execute it correctly though.

[Fafnir]

I took this as a shot at Morris/Rozier.

[Fafnir]

It's nice to see Danny admit what a vocal minority of posters (myself included) were arguing all last season: That the team as constructed was fundamentally flawed.

But since Danny doesn't do anything without producing a congratulatory media campaign I'm guessing this interview is much more strategically designed to promote what's about to happen this season - namely that he's going to address the Hayward problem.

Buckle up, fireworks incoming.

So who were you last season?

[Moranis]

I was furious at Ainge for not making a move at the trade deadline.

But Ainge was all in on Anthony Davis.

The Celts even told the Pels that they should wait until after the season so that the Celts can trade for AD.

It was just unfortunate that AD didn't want to come to Boston.

So yes, Ainge made a mistake by not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the reason is because he was all in on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

I don't buy that at all.  At least the not making moves part because he wanted Davis.  He easily could have traded Morris or Rozier and not affected an Anthony Davis trade in the least.  In fact he could have traded Rozier and Morris and made it easier to acquire Davis by actually adding salary fodder for the next season (i.e. the current one).  I was one of the people that proposed several different smaller moves using Morris and Rozier for both what I felt were better fitting pieces and in many cases salary for this year to help with a trade.  Now in retrospect that might have made acquiring Walker more difficult, but the assumption was Horford was coming back which would have made Walker impossible anyway.  It was clear the team had chemistry issues and it was also clear that Morris and Rozier weren't great fits and were role players (much more difficult to trade a star that doesn't fit like Irving then role players like Morris and Rozier).

Absolutely!

I totally agree with you about trading Morris and Rozier at the trade deadline.
But I think Ainge was not willing to take back salary.

The key to acquiring AD was to have enough cap room.

If Ainge knew Horford was going to leave, cap room would not have been an issue.

Or maybe Ainge was torn because if he traded Rozier and Morris for picks, that would weaken the Celts even more.

Only way the cap wouldn't be affected is if Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for picks.

If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for a player not having an expiring contract, that would complicate the AD trade because the Celts are a team over the cap.

Here's the thing, if only Anthony Davis agreed to come to Boston, all of this would be irrelevant.

There were pros and cons in not making a trade at the trade deadline.

It also didn't help that Morris had an expiring contract and Rozier was to become a RFA.
Maybe no team was willing to give up anything significant for Morris and Rozier.

A compromise would've been to only trade Rozier and keep Morris for the playoffs.

Cap room had nothing to do with acquiring Davis.  It was about matching salary in a trade.  Adding salary would have made it easier to acquire Davis while also allowing Boston to hang on to Smart.  Tatum + Brown wasn't enough salary to acquire Davis.  More salary was needed, especially if New Orleans was going to require a bad contract go out also.  Boston needed the extra salary for wiggle room.

Morris and Rozier had value as at a minimum expiring contracts.  Those always have value at the deadline.  Rozier had more value than that since he was an upcoming RFA and still young.  Boston wasn't getting a star back of course, but there were potential trades out there that would have cleaned up the chemistry and found better fitting pieces (I also think they should have dropped below the tax line to delay repeater tax potential longer).  Sacramento for example had a bunch of intriguing options (Mason or Ferrell + Labissierre or Giles for Morris + Rozier).  Phoenix had supposedly long coveted Rozier and had plenty of tradable pieces.  Charlotte also I thought was interesting (and they clearly liked Rozier as it turned out).  I had proposed Kaminsky and Parker for Morris, Rozier, and Yabu on here.  I thought having a vet like Tony Parker on the bench (with a 5 million tradeable contract over the summer) would have made a lot of sense and felt Kaminsky was worth taking a flyer on.  Those trades were almost addition by subtraction and made financial sense as well (both with dropping below the tax and adding a contract or two to trade over the summer).  I don't know if would have mattered in the end, both on the court or in the summer, but Ainge doing nothing while everyone else made moves was an epic fail.  I graded the trade deadline an F for that exact reason.  Ainge failed this team last year.  He failed it in the summer by not doing anything and then doubled down on that failure by doing nothing at the deadline.  Last year was the worst year in Ainge's entire tenure.  He failed and he failed miserably. 

[perks-a-beast]

Not even remotely Ainges fault. He acquired the talent, it was up to stevens and the players to put it together.

If he had cleaned out the roster before last season, and we never got to see last years team play then people would be saying “oh man if only Danny kept the 2018 playoffs team intact and added Hayward and Kyrie” So really he cant win.

[Fierce1]

I was furious at Ainge for not making a move at the trade deadline.

But Ainge was all in on Anthony Davis.

The Celts even told the Pels that they should wait until after the season so that the Celts can trade for AD.

It was just unfortunate that AD didn't want to come to Boston.

So yes, Ainge made a mistake by not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the reason is because he was all in on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

I don't buy that at all.  At least the not making moves part because he wanted Davis.  He easily could have traded Morris or Rozier and not affected an Anthony Davis trade in the least.  In fact he could have traded Rozier and Morris and made it easier to acquire Davis by actually adding salary fodder for the next season (i.e. the current one).  I was one of the people that proposed several different smaller moves using Morris and Rozier for both what I felt were better fitting pieces and in many cases salary for this year to help with a trade.  Now in retrospect that might have made acquiring Walker more difficult, but the assumption was Horford was coming back which would have made Walker impossible anyway.  It was clear the team had chemistry issues and it was also clear that Morris and Rozier weren't great fits and were role players (much more difficult to trade a star that doesn't fit like Irving then role players like Morris and Rozier).

Absolutely!

I totally agree with you about trading Morris and Rozier at the trade deadline.
But I think Ainge was not willing to take back salary.

The key to acquiring AD was to have enough cap room.

If Ainge knew Horford was going to leave, cap room would not have been an issue.

Or maybe Ainge was torn because if he traded Rozier and Morris for picks, that would weaken the Celts even more.

Only way the cap wouldn't be affected is if Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for picks.

If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for a player not having an expiring contract, that would complicate the AD trade because the Celts are a team over the cap.

Here's the thing, if only Anthony Davis agreed to come to Boston, all of this would be irrelevant.

There were pros and cons in not making a trade at the trade deadline.

It also didn't help that Morris had an expiring contract and Rozier was to become a RFA.
Maybe no team was willing to give up anything significant for Morris and Rozier.

A compromise would've been to only trade Rozier and keep Morris for the playoffs.

Cap room had nothing to do with acquiring Davis.  It was about matching salary in a trade.  Adding salary would have made it easier to acquire Davis while also allowing Boston to hang on to Smart.  Tatum + Brown wasn't enough salary to acquire Davis.  More salary was needed, especially if New Orleans was going to require a bad contract go out also.  Boston needed the extra salary for wiggle room.

Morris and Rozier had value as at a minimum expiring contracts.  Those always have value at the deadline.  Rozier had more value than that since he was an upcoming RFA and still young.  Boston wasn't getting a star back of course, but there were potential trades out there that would have cleaned up the chemistry and found better fitting pieces (I also think they should have dropped below the tax line to delay repeater tax potential longer).  Sacramento for example had a bunch of intriguing options (Mason or Ferrell + Labissierre or Giles for Morris + Rozier).  Phoenix had supposedly long coveted Rozier and had plenty of tradable pieces.  Charlotte also I thought was interesting (and they clearly liked Rozier as it turned out).  I had proposed Kaminsky and Parker for Morris, Rozier, and Yabu on here.  I thought having a vet like Tony Parker on the bench (with a 5 million tradeable contract over the summer) would have made a lot of sense and felt Kaminsky was worth taking a flyer on.  Those trades were almost addition by subtraction and made financial sense as well (both with dropping below the tax and adding a contract or two to trade over the summer).  I don't know if would have mattered in the end, both on the court or in the summer, but Ainge doing nothing while everyone else made moves was an epic fail.  I graded the trade deadline an F for that exact reason.  Ainge failed this team last year.  He failed it in the summer by not doing anything and then doubled down on that failure by doing nothing at the deadline.  Last year was the worst year in Ainge's entire tenure.  He failed and he failed miserably.

I also agree with you that Ainge failed.

But Ainge also wanted to win in the playoffs.
If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for Ferrell and Giles, that would be a downgrade.
That would have weakened the Celts for the playoffs.

Morris was productive for the Celts last season.

I think to fix the chemistry issue, Ainge only had to trade Rozier.

Remember that at that time, Ainge was still trying to hold on to Kyrie.
If Ainge made moves to weaken the team then Kyrie would surely leave at the end of the season.

Maybe it's just a case of Ainge thinking things will get better in the playoffs because it's the playoffs.

[Fierce1]

Not even remotely Ainges fault. He acquired the talent, it was up to stevens and the players to put it together.

If he had cleaned out the roster before last season, and we never got to see last years team play then people would be saying “oh man if only Danny kept the 2018 playoffs team intact and added Hayward and Kyrie” So really he cant win.

You have a point.

But clearly chemistry was a problem last season.

Ainge should have done something because the pieces just didn't fit.

[Walker Wiggle]

It's laudable that Ainge is trying to attract blame, thereby freeing up Brad and the players (and not taking shots at Kyrie). However, hindsight is 20-20 and there are some things we should remember:

- Team arguably needed to hold on to Rozier as an insurance policy against Kyrie leaving.
- Morris practically carried the team the first half of the season, especially with Hayward playing at 50%.
- There was hope for Hayward to get back to his old self by the playoffs, which might transform the team's fortunes on its own.
- Team was trying to hold on to assets and salary for that "big fish" trade in the offseason, Davis or otherwise.

It was a tough situation with no easy solution. If Kyrie doesn't essentially quit in round 2 of the playoffs and Hayward looks like his pre-injury self, then we're probably not talking the same way as we are today about the flaws in the roster.

[Surferdad]

I was furious at Ainge for not making a move at the trade deadline.

But Ainge was all in on Anthony Davis.

The Celts even told the Pels that they should wait until after the season so that the Celts can trade for AD.

It was just unfortunate that AD didn't want to come to Boston.

So yes, Ainge made a mistake by not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the reason is because he was all in on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

I don't buy that at all.  At least the not making moves part because he wanted Davis.  He easily could have traded Morris or Rozier and not affected an Anthony Davis trade in the least.  In fact he could have traded Rozier and Morris and made it easier to acquire Davis by actually adding salary fodder for the next season (i.e. the current one).  I was one of the people that proposed several different smaller moves using Morris and Rozier for both what I felt were better fitting pieces and in many cases salary for this year to help with a trade.  Now in retrospect that might have made acquiring Walker more difficult, but the assumption was Horford was coming back which would have made Walker impossible anyway.  It was clear the team had chemistry issues and it was also clear that Morris and Rozier weren't great fits and were role players (much more difficult to trade a star that doesn't fit like Irving then role players like Morris and Rozier).

Absolutely!

I totally agree with you about trading Morris and Rozier at the trade deadline.
But I think Ainge was not willing to take back salary.

The key to acquiring AD was to have enough cap room.

If Ainge knew Horford was going to leave, cap room would not have been an issue.

Or maybe Ainge was torn because if he traded Rozier and Morris for picks, that would weaken the Celts even more.

Only way the cap wouldn't be affected is if Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for picks.

If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for a player not having an expiring contract, that would complicate the AD trade because the Celts are a team over the cap.

Here's the thing, if only Anthony Davis agreed to come to Boston, all of this would be irrelevant.

There were pros and cons in not making a trade at the trade deadline.

It also didn't help that Morris had an expiring contract and Rozier was to become a RFA.
Maybe no team was willing to give up anything significant for Morris and Rozier.

A compromise would've been to only trade Rozier and keep Morris for the playoffs.

Cap room had nothing to do with acquiring Davis.  It was about matching salary in a trade.  Adding salary would have made it easier to acquire Davis while also allowing Boston to hang on to Smart.  Tatum + Brown wasn't enough salary to acquire Davis.  More salary was needed, especially if New Orleans was going to require a bad contract go out also.  Boston needed the extra salary for wiggle room.

Morris and Rozier had value as at a minimum expiring contracts.  Those always have value at the deadline.  Rozier had more value than that since he was an upcoming RFA and still young.  Boston wasn't getting a star back of course, but there were potential trades out there that would have cleaned up the chemistry and found better fitting pieces (I also think they should have dropped below the tax line to delay repeater tax potential longer).  Sacramento for example had a bunch of intriguing options (Mason or Ferrell + Labissierre or Giles for Morris + Rozier).  Phoenix had supposedly long coveted Rozier and had plenty of tradable pieces.  Charlotte also I thought was interesting (and they clearly liked Rozier as it turned out).  I had proposed Kaminsky and Parker for Morris, Rozier, and Yabu on here.  I thought having a vet like Tony Parker on the bench (with a 5 million tradeable contract over the summer) would have made a lot of sense and felt Kaminsky was worth taking a flyer on.  Those trades were almost addition by subtraction and made financial sense as well (both with dropping below the tax and adding a contract or two to trade over the summer).  I don't know if would have mattered in the end, both on the court or in the summer, but Ainge doing nothing while everyone else made moves was an epic fail.  I graded the trade deadline an F for that exact reason.  Ainge failed this team last year.  He failed it in the summer by not doing anything and then doubled down on that failure by doing nothing at the deadline.  Last year was the worst year in Ainge's entire tenure.  He failed and he failed miserably.

I don't necessarily disagree (though I think a grade of 'F' is a bit harsh) but it could be argued that he was a victim of his own success in talent evaluation.  In other words, the team was "too deep" with rotation-worthy players due to his better-than-average talent evaluation skill.

[Moranis]

I was furious at Ainge for not making a move at the trade deadline.

But Ainge was all in on Anthony Davis.

The Celts even told the Pels that they should wait until after the season so that the Celts can trade for AD.

It was just unfortunate that AD didn't want to come to Boston.

So yes, Ainge made a mistake by not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the reason is because he was all in on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

I don't buy that at all.  At least the not making moves part because he wanted Davis.  He easily could have traded Morris or Rozier and not affected an Anthony Davis trade in the least.  In fact he could have traded Rozier and Morris and made it easier to acquire Davis by actually adding salary fodder for the next season (i.e. the current one).  I was one of the people that proposed several different smaller moves using Morris and Rozier for both what I felt were better fitting pieces and in many cases salary for this year to help with a trade.  Now in retrospect that might have made acquiring Walker more difficult, but the assumption was Horford was coming back which would have made Walker impossible anyway.  It was clear the team had chemistry issues and it was also clear that Morris and Rozier weren't great fits and were role players (much more difficult to trade a star that doesn't fit like Irving then role players like Morris and Rozier).

Absolutely!

I totally agree with you about trading Morris and Rozier at the trade deadline.
But I think Ainge was not willing to take back salary.

The key to acquiring AD was to have enough cap room.

If Ainge knew Horford was going to leave, cap room would not have been an issue.

Or maybe Ainge was torn because if he traded Rozier and Morris for picks, that would weaken the Celts even more.

Only way the cap wouldn't be affected is if Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for picks.

If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for a player not having an expiring contract, that would complicate the AD trade because the Celts are a team over the cap.

Here's the thing, if only Anthony Davis agreed to come to Boston, all of this would be irrelevant.

There were pros and cons in not making a trade at the trade deadline.

It also didn't help that Morris had an expiring contract and Rozier was to become a RFA.
Maybe no team was willing to give up anything significant for Morris and Rozier.

A compromise would've been to only trade Rozier and keep Morris for the playoffs.

Cap room had nothing to do with acquiring Davis.  It was about matching salary in a trade.  Adding salary would have made it easier to acquire Davis while also allowing Boston to hang on to Smart.  Tatum + Brown wasn't enough salary to acquire Davis.  More salary was needed, especially if New Orleans was going to require a bad contract go out also.  Boston needed the extra salary for wiggle room.

Morris and Rozier had value as at a minimum expiring contracts.  Those always have value at the deadline.  Rozier had more value than that since he was an upcoming RFA and still young.  Boston wasn't getting a star back of course, but there were potential trades out there that would have cleaned up the chemistry and found better fitting pieces (I also think they should have dropped below the tax line to delay repeater tax potential longer).  Sacramento for example had a bunch of intriguing options (Mason or Ferrell + Labissierre or Giles for Morris + Rozier).  Phoenix had supposedly long coveted Rozier and had plenty of tradable pieces.  Charlotte also I thought was interesting (and they clearly liked Rozier as it turned out).  I had proposed Kaminsky and Parker for Morris, Rozier, and Yabu on here.  I thought having a vet like Tony Parker on the bench (with a 5 million tradeable contract over the summer) would have made a lot of sense and felt Kaminsky was worth taking a flyer on.  Those trades were almost addition by subtraction and made financial sense as well (both with dropping below the tax and adding a contract or two to trade over the summer).  I don't know if would have mattered in the end, both on the court or in the summer, but Ainge doing nothing while everyone else made moves was an epic fail.  I graded the trade deadline an F for that exact reason.  Ainge failed this team last year.  He failed it in the summer by not doing anything and then doubled down on that failure by doing nothing at the deadline.  Last year was the worst year in Ainge's entire tenure.  He failed and he failed miserably.

I also agree with you that Ainge failed.

But Ainge also wanted to win in the playoffs.
If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for Ferrell and Giles, that would be a downgrade.
That would have weakened the Celts for the playoffs.

Morris was productive for the Celts last season.

I think to fix the chemistry issue, Ainge only had to trade Rozier.

Remember that at that time, Ainge was still trying to hold on to Kyrie.
If Ainge made moves to weaken the team then Kyrie would surely leave at the end of the season.

Maybe it's just a case of Ainge thinking things will get better in the playoffs because it's the playoffs.

Rozier was awful in the playoffs continuing his trend of being awful all season long.  Ferrell absolutely would have performed better than Rozier.  He is a much better shooter and much better in a bench role than Rozier ever showed he was. 

Morris played quite well in the playoffs on the whole, but if you take his minutes out you just increase the minutes of Baynes, Tatum, Hayward, and Brown to replace him and you have the flyer on Giles (who was actually fairly healthy last year and performed fairly well overall).  Giles is a different type of player, which frankly the team probably could have used.  They needed someone who could effectively score inside, not another swing type player like Morris.  In addition, Giles clearly has immense talent potential.  You take the flyer on him and remove a guy that never saw a shot he didn't like and was likely a cancer in the locker-room.

Again though it was about removing 2 cancers from the team with better fitting pieces i.e. a credible shooter/back-up PG and an interior scorer. 

[timpiker]

I remember the 1st thing to do was to trade Rozier.  I didn't want that because I thought he'd be good insurance if Cryee was injured.  And Morris carried the team early in the year.  I know Danny's taking 1 for the team but I'm not sure "clearing out the roster" was a good idea at the time either.

[Moranis]

I was furious at Ainge for not making a move at the trade deadline.

But Ainge was all in on Anthony Davis.

The Celts even told the Pels that they should wait until after the season so that the Celts can trade for AD.

It was just unfortunate that AD didn't want to come to Boston.

So yes, Ainge made a mistake by not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the reason is because he was all in on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

I don't buy that at all.  At least the not making moves part because he wanted Davis.  He easily could have traded Morris or Rozier and not affected an Anthony Davis trade in the least.  In fact he could have traded Rozier and Morris and made it easier to acquire Davis by actually adding salary fodder for the next season (i.e. the current one).  I was one of the people that proposed several different smaller moves using Morris and Rozier for both what I felt were better fitting pieces and in many cases salary for this year to help with a trade.  Now in retrospect that might have made acquiring Walker more difficult, but the assumption was Horford was coming back which would have made Walker impossible anyway.  It was clear the team had chemistry issues and it was also clear that Morris and Rozier weren't great fits and were role players (much more difficult to trade a star that doesn't fit like Irving then role players like Morris and Rozier).

Absolutely!

I totally agree with you about trading Morris and Rozier at the trade deadline.
But I think Ainge was not willing to take back salary.

The key to acquiring AD was to have enough cap room.

If Ainge knew Horford was going to leave, cap room would not have been an issue.

Or maybe Ainge was torn because if he traded Rozier and Morris for picks, that would weaken the Celts even more.

Only way the cap wouldn't be affected is if Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for picks.

If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for a player not having an expiring contract, that would complicate the AD trade because the Celts are a team over the cap.

Here's the thing, if only Anthony Davis agreed to come to Boston, all of this would be irrelevant.

There were pros and cons in not making a trade at the trade deadline.

It also didn't help that Morris had an expiring contract and Rozier was to become a RFA.
Maybe no team was willing to give up anything significant for Morris and Rozier.

A compromise would've been to only trade Rozier and keep Morris for the playoffs.

Cap room had nothing to do with acquiring Davis.  It was about matching salary in a trade.  Adding salary would have made it easier to acquire Davis while also allowing Boston to hang on to Smart.  Tatum + Brown wasn't enough salary to acquire Davis.  More salary was needed, especially if New Orleans was going to require a bad contract go out also.  Boston needed the extra salary for wiggle room.

Morris and Rozier had value as at a minimum expiring contracts.  Those always have value at the deadline.  Rozier had more value than that since he was an upcoming RFA and still young.  Boston wasn't getting a star back of course, but there were potential trades out there that would have cleaned up the chemistry and found better fitting pieces (I also think they should have dropped below the tax line to delay repeater tax potential longer).  Sacramento for example had a bunch of intriguing options (Mason or Ferrell + Labissierre or Giles for Morris + Rozier).  Phoenix had supposedly long coveted Rozier and had plenty of tradable pieces.  Charlotte also I thought was interesting (and they clearly liked Rozier as it turned out).  I had proposed Kaminsky and Parker for Morris, Rozier, and Yabu on here.  I thought having a vet like Tony Parker on the bench (with a 5 million tradeable contract over the summer) would have made a lot of sense and felt Kaminsky was worth taking a flyer on.  Those trades were almost addition by subtraction and made financial sense as well (both with dropping below the tax and adding a contract or two to trade over the summer).  I don't know if would have mattered in the end, both on the court or in the summer, but Ainge doing nothing while everyone else made moves was an epic fail.  I graded the trade deadline an F for that exact reason.  Ainge failed this team last year.  He failed it in the summer by not doing anything and then doubled down on that failure by doing nothing at the deadline.  Last year was the worst year in Ainge's entire tenure.  He failed and he failed miserably.

I don't necessarily disagree (though I think a grade of 'F' is a bit harsh) but it could be argued that he was a victim of his own success in talent evaluation.  In other words, the team was "too deep" with rotation-worthy players due to his better-than-average talent evaluation skill.

When you make no moves I don't see how anything other than F is appropriate.  The Celtics did nothing (well they traded Bird, which didn't even get below the tax so was a worthless trade).  Doing nothing was especially bad when the 3 main competitors all made significant moves to get better (Toronto, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia).  The team clearly had some issues, you watch your main competitors all get better, and you decide the best option is to not do anything (after basically not doing anything over the summer).  That is pretty much the definition of failure. 

[Fierce1]

I was furious at Ainge for not making a move at the trade deadline.

But Ainge was all in on Anthony Davis.

The Celts even told the Pels that they should wait until after the season so that the Celts can trade for AD.

It was just unfortunate that AD didn't want to come to Boston.

So yes, Ainge made a mistake by not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the reason is because he was all in on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

I don't buy that at all.  At least the not making moves part because he wanted Davis.  He easily could have traded Morris or Rozier and not affected an Anthony Davis trade in the least.  In fact he could have traded Rozier and Morris and made it easier to acquire Davis by actually adding salary fodder for the next season (i.e. the current one).  I was one of the people that proposed several different smaller moves using Morris and Rozier for both what I felt were better fitting pieces and in many cases salary for this year to help with a trade.  Now in retrospect that might have made acquiring Walker more difficult, but the assumption was Horford was coming back which would have made Walker impossible anyway.  It was clear the team had chemistry issues and it was also clear that Morris and Rozier weren't great fits and were role players (much more difficult to trade a star that doesn't fit like Irving then role players like Morris and Rozier).

Absolutely!

I totally agree with you about trading Morris and Rozier at the trade deadline.
But I think Ainge was not willing to take back salary.

The key to acquiring AD was to have enough cap room.

If Ainge knew Horford was going to leave, cap room would not have been an issue.

Or maybe Ainge was torn because if he traded Rozier and Morris for picks, that would weaken the Celts even more.

Only way the cap wouldn't be affected is if Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for picks.

If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for a player not having an expiring contract, that would complicate the AD trade because the Celts are a team over the cap.

Here's the thing, if only Anthony Davis agreed to come to Boston, all of this would be irrelevant.

There were pros and cons in not making a trade at the trade deadline.

It also didn't help that Morris had an expiring contract and Rozier was to become a RFA.
Maybe no team was willing to give up anything significant for Morris and Rozier.

A compromise would've been to only trade Rozier and keep Morris for the playoffs.

Cap room had nothing to do with acquiring Davis.  It was about matching salary in a trade.  Adding salary would have made it easier to acquire Davis while also allowing Boston to hang on to Smart.  Tatum + Brown wasn't enough salary to acquire Davis.  More salary was needed, especially if New Orleans was going to require a bad contract go out also.  Boston needed the extra salary for wiggle room.

Morris and Rozier had value as at a minimum expiring contracts.  Those always have value at the deadline.  Rozier had more value than that since he was an upcoming RFA and still young.  Boston wasn't getting a star back of course, but there were potential trades out there that would have cleaned up the chemistry and found better fitting pieces (I also think they should have dropped below the tax line to delay repeater tax potential longer).  Sacramento for example had a bunch of intriguing options (Mason or Ferrell + Labissierre or Giles for Morris + Rozier).  Phoenix had supposedly long coveted Rozier and had plenty of tradable pieces.  Charlotte also I thought was interesting (and they clearly liked Rozier as it turned out).  I had proposed Kaminsky and Parker for Morris, Rozier, and Yabu on here.  I thought having a vet like Tony Parker on the bench (with a 5 million tradeable contract over the summer) would have made a lot of sense and felt Kaminsky was worth taking a flyer on.  Those trades were almost addition by subtraction and made financial sense as well (both with dropping below the tax and adding a contract or two to trade over the summer).  I don't know if would have mattered in the end, both on the court or in the summer, but Ainge doing nothing while everyone else made moves was an epic fail.  I graded the trade deadline an F for that exact reason.  Ainge failed this team last year.  He failed it in the summer by not doing anything and then doubled down on that failure by doing nothing at the deadline.  Last year was the worst year in Ainge's entire tenure.  He failed and he failed miserably.

I also agree with you that Ainge failed.

But Ainge also wanted to win in the playoffs.
If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for Ferrell and Giles, that would be a downgrade.
That would have weakened the Celts for the playoffs.

Morris was productive for the Celts last season.

I think to fix the chemistry issue, Ainge only had to trade Rozier.

Remember that at that time, Ainge was still trying to hold on to Kyrie.
If Ainge made moves to weaken the team then Kyrie would surely leave at the end of the season.

Maybe it's just a case of Ainge thinking things will get better in the playoffs because it's the playoffs.

Rozier was awful in the playoffs continuing his trend of being awful all season long.  Ferrell absolutely would have performed better than Rozier.  He is a much better shooter and much better in a bench role than Rozier ever showed he was. 

Morris played quite well in the playoffs on the whole, but if you take his minutes out you just increase the minutes of Baynes, Tatum, Hayward, and Brown to replace him and you have the flyer on Giles (who was actually fairly healthy last year and performed fairly well overall).  Giles is a different type of player, which frankly the team probably could have used.  They needed someone who could effectively score inside, not another swing type player like Morris.  In addition, Giles clearly has immense talent potential.  You take the flyer on him and remove a guy that never saw a shot he didn't like and was likely a cancer in the locker-room.

Again though it was about removing 2 cancers from the team with better fitting pieces i.e. a credible shooter/back-up PG and an interior scorer.

Rozier did well in the playoffs the previous season, when Kyrie was injured.

I'm not really sure that Morris was cancer in the locker room.

The problem was Kyrie, not Morris.

I agree that Ainge should have made a move, but in the end the Celts got better this season.
So Ainge's failure at the trade deadline last season has no long term effect on the Celts moving forward.

[Fierce1]

I was furious at Ainge for not making a move at the trade deadline.

But Ainge was all in on Anthony Davis.

The Celts even told the Pels that they should wait until after the season so that the Celts can trade for AD.

It was just unfortunate that AD didn't want to come to Boston.

So yes, Ainge made a mistake by not making any moves at the trade deadline, but the reason is because he was all in on the Anthony Davis sweepstakes.

I don't buy that at all.  At least the not making moves part because he wanted Davis.  He easily could have traded Morris or Rozier and not affected an Anthony Davis trade in the least.  In fact he could have traded Rozier and Morris and made it easier to acquire Davis by actually adding salary fodder for the next season (i.e. the current one).  I was one of the people that proposed several different smaller moves using Morris and Rozier for both what I felt were better fitting pieces and in many cases salary for this year to help with a trade.  Now in retrospect that might have made acquiring Walker more difficult, but the assumption was Horford was coming back which would have made Walker impossible anyway.  It was clear the team had chemistry issues and it was also clear that Morris and Rozier weren't great fits and were role players (much more difficult to trade a star that doesn't fit like Irving then role players like Morris and Rozier).

Absolutely!

I totally agree with you about trading Morris and Rozier at the trade deadline.
But I think Ainge was not willing to take back salary.

The key to acquiring AD was to have enough cap room.

If Ainge knew Horford was going to leave, cap room would not have been an issue.

Or maybe Ainge was torn because if he traded Rozier and Morris for picks, that would weaken the Celts even more.

Only way the cap wouldn't be affected is if Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for picks.

If Ainge traded Morris and Rozier for a player not having an expiring contract, that would complicate the AD trade because the Celts are a team over the cap.

Here's the thing, if only Anthony Davis agreed to come to Boston, all of this would be irrelevant.

There were pros and cons in not making a trade at the trade deadline.

It also didn't help that Morris had an expiring contract and Rozier was to become a RFA.
Maybe no team was willing to give up anything significant for Morris and Rozier.

A compromise would've been to only trade Rozier and keep Morris for the playoffs.

Cap room had nothing to do with acquiring Davis.  It was about matching salary in a trade.  Adding salary would have made it easier to acquire Davis while also allowing Boston to hang on to Smart.  Tatum + Brown wasn't enough salary to acquire Davis.  More salary was needed, especially if New Orleans was going to require a bad contract go out also.  Boston needed the extra salary for wiggle room.

Morris and Rozier had value as at a minimum expiring contracts.  Those always have value at the deadline.  Rozier had more value than that since he was an upcoming RFA and still young.  Boston wasn't getting a star back of course, but there were potential trades out there that would have cleaned up the chemistry and found better fitting pieces (I also think they should have dropped below the tax line to delay repeater tax potential longer).  Sacramento for example had a bunch of intriguing options (Mason or Ferrell + Labissierre or Giles for Morris + Rozier).  Phoenix had supposedly long coveted Rozier and had plenty of tradable pieces.  Charlotte also I thought was interesting (and they clearly liked Rozier as it turned out).  I had proposed Kaminsky and Parker for Morris, Rozier, and Yabu on here.  I thought having a vet like Tony Parker on the bench (with a 5 million tradeable contract over the summer) would have made a lot of sense and felt Kaminsky was worth taking a flyer on.  Those trades were almost addition by subtraction and made financial sense as well (both with dropping below the tax and adding a contract or two to trade over the summer).  I don't know if would have mattered in the end, both on the court or in the summer, but Ainge doing nothing while everyone else made moves was an epic fail.  I graded the trade deadline an F for that exact reason.  Ainge failed this team last year.  He failed it in the summer by not doing anything and then doubled down on that failure by doing nothing at the deadline.  Last year was the worst year in Ainge's entire tenure.  He failed and he failed miserably.

I don't necessarily disagree (though I think a grade of 'F' is a bit harsh) but it could be argued that he was a victim of his own success in talent evaluation.  In other words, the team was "too deep" with rotation-worthy players due to his better-than-average talent evaluation skill.

When you make no moves I don't see how anything other than F is appropriate.  The Celtics did nothing (well they traded Bird, which didn't even get below the tax so was a worthless trade).  Doing nothing was especially bad when the 3 main competitors all made significant moves to get better (Toronto, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia).  The team clearly had some issues, you watch your main competitors all get better, and you decide the best option is to not do anything (after basically not doing anything over the summer).  That is pretty much the definition of failure.

Right on the money!

That I totally agree with.

But I think Ainge was really all in on Anthony Davis.

Ainge was playing it safe.