Gary Washburn: Blame Danny Ainge

[Bobshot]

On thursday's Celtics Beat podcast, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe laid the blame for the Celtics' problems primarily on Danny Ainge and the front office scouting team. He said that have done horribly in the draft, and singled out the Yabusele, Zizic and Young picks. Said if they liked Herro so much they should have moved up in the draft.  Basically said that they are poor talent evaluators, and should add a former NBA player to the scouting team, and someone like Mike Schmidt of ESPN who specializes in scouting.  He also was confounded by the Bane trade with the 30th pick, and said if we had cleared roster space we could have drafted and signed him, or the Michigan State kid.

He also was somewhat dismissive of Mike Gorman's take that the two stars are ball stoppers, saying they have no one to pass it to, singling out Theis and Semi as inadequated shooters or scorers.  He said that Brown's "no comment" frustration is with his untalented teammates.

Said that the Celtics need to cut their losses for bad draft picks, again singling out keeping guys like Yabu way too long.  He said the best organizations are not sentimental about their players, and noted the Lakers and Nets as two teams that are very effective is signing/cutting guys quickly until they find the right mix.

I don't agree much with his assessments. He was especially critical of Theis, which seemed a bit odd and off putting. 

Curious what you guys think.

I agree with Washburn. Danny's strategy, sorry to say, over the past 13 years, hasn't worked. Partly because of bad luck with GH (they miss him right now), partly because he has failed to find a dominant center  (Horford was closest, but no cigar). And he has a small ball coach who could care less about dominant centers.  Stevens also has a significant say in personnel, by the way. Heard Danny say that. He also has failed to make trades for significant players when given the opportunity. Way too conservative on this. The latest was the GH fiasco with Indiana.

Theis? A nice sign, but way overexposed in Stevens system. A backup 4. Can't jump, and can't defend against good bigs. Robert Williams' paucity of minutes, considering his productivity, is a mystery, although his durability is questionable. And Tacko Fall  seems to be treated like a novelty, instead of a guy who could dominate the paint. Wonder what Austin Ainge, who signed him, thinks about that.

I like Danny. He's an original Celtic, and he should know the basics of Celtics winning: know your roles,  pass for the best shot, and get easy shots with a fast transition game.
I don't see that in the present team.  Maybe it's the coach. I don't know.

If I'm the owner, with this team currently in last place, I'm wondering if I need to make any changes if I want to win again.

Nice post overall, TP.  Though I think Danny's done much more right than wrong. 

And Theis CAN jump!!   

Robert Williams can jump better. I've seen big centers jump over Theis several times. Nobody drives when Tacko is in the paint. Saw that pre-season a couple of years ago.

[CFAN38]

On thursday's Celtics Beat podcast, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe laid the blame for the Celtics' problems primarily on Danny Ainge and the front office scouting team. He said that have done horribly in the draft, and singled out the Yabusele, Zizic and Young picks. Said if they liked Herro so much they should have moved up in the draft.  Basically said that they are poor talent evaluators, and should add a former NBA player to the scouting team, and someone like Mike Schmidt of ESPN who specializes in scouting.  He also was confounded by the Bane trade with the 30th pick, and said if we had cleared roster space we could have drafted and signed him, or the Michigan State kid.

He also was somewhat dismissive of Mike Gorman's take that the two stars are ball stoppers, saying they have no one to pass it to, singling out Theis and Semi as inadequated shooters or scorers.  He said that Brown's "no comment" frustration is with his untalented teammates.

Said that the Celtics need to cut their losses for bad draft picks, again singling out keeping guys like Yabu way too long.  He said the best organizations are not sentimental about their players, and noted the Lakers and Nets as two teams that are very effective is signing/cutting guys quickly until they find the right mix.

I don't agree much with his assessments. He was especially critical of Theis, which seemed a bit odd and off putting. 

Curious what you guys think.

Judging picks in hindsight is really tough. I may not agree with DAs picks but I would guess that he hits on prospects at a rate at least on pare with other GMs. Where he has really failed on draft night in resent years stems from the roster crunch and having 3 firsts. The Yabu zizic draft and this past draft the Cs didn’t have room for 3 players. Yabu was a reach based on the need to draft and stash and Bane was traded to bring in assets to move Kanter and to clear roster space. In both cases the Cs would have probably need better of taking the gamble of trying to trade up with multiple picks. This usually involves an overpay. (Really have to wonder if Cs could have moved up two spots this past draft for Haliburton?)

As a trader DA simply will not take a trade that doesn’t make long and short term sense for the team. This has served the team well and made them a consistent playoff team. I also think this has made team reluctant to deal with the Celtics.

Overall I’m confident in DA. I think a lot happened this off-season around the Hayward S&T that we don’t know. I’m wasn’t a fan of the Thompson signing but think it was more a cap space use / future asset move then roster move. Teague was Kemba insurance and I don’t think sign him in they new how NBA ready PP was. This deadline and off-season will be a major cross roads for my DA confidence and I think he pulls somthing out of his hat.

[gouki88]

He should have gotten Halliburton this draft.

Because he was available when the Celtics picked?   

Because you would have traded up when no team traded down?

It's that easy!

[ozgod]

Theis? A nice sign, but way overexposed in Stevens system. A backup 4. Can't jump, and can't defend against good bigs. Robert Williams' paucity of minutes, considering his productivity, is a mystery, although his durability is questionable. And Tacko Fall  seems to be treated like a novelty, instead of a guy who could dominate the paint. Wonder what Austin Ainge, who signed him, thinks about that.

I think you answered your own question about Rob Williams's minutes. I'm guessing they don't want him to break down or have a recurrence of the bone edema in his hip, and he says he still suffers from hip soreness from time to time.

[boscel33]

This isn't news, Danny laid the blame on himself, so what!

[spikelovetheCelts]

He's right that they've messed up with their draft picks with guys like Young, Yabusele, Zizic, etc.

But, they nailed it with Brown, Tatum, Smart, Rozier, Rob Williams, Pritchard and Semi. I mean, Semi was a 2nd round pick who's turned into a solid rotation guy who can defend multiple positions and hit the 3. You can't criticize that pick by expecting him to be more than that.

I agree with this.

There's been some very bad ones (Young) but there's also been some very good ones (Rozier) and there's been some fine ones (Olynyk) and they really nailed the picks when they were the most valuable (Tatum and Brown). There's still guys developing and getting better so we'll see about them but calling this team bad at drafting over the last ten years seems flat-out wrong.

Moore and Nader second round picks still in the NBA. Avery Bradley has had a good career too. I think Grant Williams will do a Robert Williams in his 3rd year. Nesmith and Romeo both have played good D.

[MaxAMillion]

We know the Ainge fanboys won’t accept this. Everyone else is the problem. Ainge is doing the best he can in spite of all the hurdles of being the C’s GM. No one wants to make a fair trade with Ainge so it isn’t his fault.

[PhoSita]

I listened to Gary's appearance on the podcast with Adam Kaufman.

Seems to me like Gary has a beef with Danny Ainge and the rest of the front office for some reason.  Like he resents the credit Danny has gotten over the last 5-8 years.

I'm curious what the backstory is there.  It feels like there's more to the story.

I respect Gary's opinions on the Cs but he was really cherry picking Danny's draft record and kind of glossing over what he's accomplished.


Danny is not above criticism.  I definitely think he miscalculated in some major ways this past offseason.  It's worth scrutinizing whether he mishandled the situation with Hayward and Kyrie by allowing them to hit UFA.  The criticism to make about Yabusele is not the pick (which everybody understood was a huge reach), but to ask why Danny was in a position to use the pick at all instead of trading it.  But the way Gary was talking about all of that seemed a bit beyond to me. 

[PhoSita]

I think I was about the only Celtics fan at the time who didn’t like the Young pick.  Well, not in reality, but it was a very popular pic. I was all in on Gary Harris, and I know that some fans really liked Rodney Hood, but Young was a high upside pick.

The other guy I liked that year, strangely, was Joe Harris. I say strangely because I suck at drafting, but I actually found a diamond that year.

What a weird draft. I think you can make a strong argument that picks number 31 through number 41 were better than number one through number 10.

Gambling on super young Kentucky guys has paid off handsomely for a number of teams in the past decade.  Just didn't work out with James Young.  I hope Danny does it again.

[Uncle_Stingfinger]

He should have gotten Halliburton this draft.

Because he was available when the Celtics picked?   

Because you would have traded up when no team traded down?

because they had the assets to go get him you condescending jerkoff.

[Donoghus]

He should have gotten Halliburton this draft.

Because he was available when the Celtics picked?   

Because you would have traded up when no team traded down?

because they had the assets to go get him you condescending jerkoff.

Wrong answer.

[PhoSita]

He should have gotten Halliburton this draft.

Because he was available when the Celtics picked?   

Because you would have traded up when no team traded down?

because they had the assets to go get him you condescending jerkoff.

Says who?  Are there any reports out that teams ahead of the Celts were willing to take what the Celts had to offer?


It's all good and well to say that Danny ought to have been able to package 14 with the other two 1st rounders to move up into range of Haliburton. 

Were there any takers for that package?  You can't just assume that the reason a deal didn't happen is that Danny didn't make the offer.

[gouki88]

He should have gotten Halliburton this draft.

Because he was available when the Celtics picked?   

Because you would have traded up when no team traded down?

because they had the assets to go get him you condescending jerkoff.

Wrong answer.

I guess with a username like that expecting obedience of the rules was probably unlikely.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I'm so glad we didn't get Turner and McBuckets.  Turner had like 3 boards tonight and the Pacers are generally even more frustrating than we are.  We'd just be murdered on the cap and right where we are now anyway

[nickagneta]

I'm so glad we didn't get Turner and McBuckets.  Turner had like 3 boards tonight and the Pacers are generally even more frustrating than we are.  We'd just be murdered on the cap and right where we are now anyway

I know lots of people loved Turner because he is tall and blocks some shots, but he is no Embiid stopper. Turner "held" Embiid to 24 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists in 27 minutes.

I think Theis/Thompson/Timelord could "hold" Embiid to those numbers.