Brad outpacing Ainge as GM. Just wish he didn't trade Moses

[ozgod]

We have the benefit of hindsight in judging Danny's moves. It's only fair we do the same to Brad's as well.

[SparzWizard]

Stevens wasn't being aggressive enough to sign all these veterans and ring-chasers that the Lakers/Nets did.

Some of those vets would've been useful this season...

[ozgod]

Stevens wasn't being aggressive enough to sign all these veterans and ring-chasers that the Lakers/Nets did.

Some of those vets would've been useful this season...

I have a feeling those ring chasers were either going to sign with a team that had LeBum or with KD myself. Unless we offered them a lot more money.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Danny was good (albeit washed-up), but Brad is brilliant and young. Got a feeling when it is all said and done, he’ll be thought as highly as a GM/Coach as Pat Riley and we’re going to have 4-7 titles under him the next 20 years.

[PAOBoston]

Danny: tore down the Cs, rebuilt, won a championship, tore down again, rebuilt, drafted two cornerstone guys, on the cusp on contending again.

Brad: traded for Richardson and Hernangomez

This thread is ridiculous lol.

Umm Schroder signing robbery mean much to you?

Even if that was the Horford connection.... it all ties in

Would Ainge made that Kemba for Horford trade? Something tells me no

If you re read my initial post... especially compare Ainge moves in the last 2 seasons vs what Brad did this offseason alone.

Ainge was here for 20 years. You can’t just cherry pick the last two and compare them to 2 months of Brad. We literally have no idea if these moves actually work out for the Cs. The Cs could be a dumpster fire like they were last year too this season. Then will see how much love Brad gets. “Brad trades for the corpse of Horford.” “Brad traded for a guy who can’t shoot in Richardson.” “Brad signed a me first chucked in Schroder”. Time will tell with Brad but Ainge was here for 20 years and the team was always basically in the playoffs.

[jambr380]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

[td450]

I saw two Ainge's. Before Kyrie and after Kyrie.

Stevens has gotten back to what Ainge was really good at pre-Kyrie. Making several small value moves each year, stealing value and cap positioning wherever you can find it, no matter how small the opportunity. Ainge stopped doing that in the last couple of years.

When you work the team this way, you maximize the larger opportunities when they come around. Your bench improves. You clear out mistakes more quickly. You just become a better team.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

Not sure what your point of Simmons and the extensions is, they have nothing to do with each other.

[JBcat]

As Roy pointed out it’s not even close in Ainge’s favor.  Lol. With that said I don’t think it’s a 1 man show in either case.  Mike Zarren, the cap guru, I think gets under appreciated in all these clever moves navigating around the salary cap rules, and he has been around a very long time.

[droopdog7]

Let's be real:  Brad has been active, but he hasn't done anything particularly monumental.  Nothing he has done would be in Danny's top-10 moves.  In no particular order:

The KG trade
The Ray trade
The Brooklyn trade
Drafting Tatum
Drafting Brown
Drafting Big Al
Drafting Perk
The Kyrie trade (even if it didn't work out)
The Hayward signing
The Horford signing
Trading Jeff Green for a #1
Drafting Rondo
Trading Jiri Welsch for a #1
Signing James Posey
Signing Eddie House, Sam Cassell and PJ Browns as free agents
Drafting Avery Bradley
Drafting Marcus Smart
Traded for IT
Drafted Rozier
Traded the #1 pick for Tatum and a future #1

That's 20, and that's skipping a lot of positive moves.

Realistically, what has Brad done that you're particularly impressed by?  We acquired Josh Richardson using a trade exception.  What's the Danny Ainge equivalent?  Trading for Jae Crowder, maybe?  We signed Enes Kanter.  We traded for a below-average PF.

I like Brad's trades for the most part, but they've all been pretty incremental.  Our one move of consequence was a salary dump, although I do like that we brought Horford back.  It's not a lot different than Danny giving up a #1 to turn Raef into Radcliff.  Danny was able to turn that move into a key building block in the KG trade.  Will Brad be able to do something as monumental?

I don’t think Ainge would have extended TimeLord or Smart, which I think we’re both solid moves.  Also good with the Richardson extension, but I particularly like the first two.

Stevens has handed out as many extensions this month as Ainge did in about his final decade.

What you’re describing is (maybe) a difference in philosophy.  These moves may turn out good or bad at this point.

[droopdog7]

What is going on with stevens is nothing more than a guy trying to out his stamp on the job.  Happens everywhere every time.  Could work, could not.  We have no idea at this point.

[moiso]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

Agree with everything except the Kyrie part.  He was a headcase known to cause his own team to implode on Cleveland and that's exactly what Boston got, and the team still hasn't fully recovered from it.  I'd say that was a bad trade.  Ainge took the gamble based on Irving's talent and he lost.

As of now I'm in the lukewarm camp too.  Stevens has positioned himself to make a big move next year so it's hard to judge him until then.  Hopefully Stevens' moves improve the culture this year, and hopefully next year we can make a real leap toward contending.

[Silas]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

Agree with everything except the Kyrie part.  He was a headcase known to cause his own team to implode on Cleveland and that's exactly what Boston got, and the team still hasn't fully recovered from it.  I'd say that was a bad trade.  Ainge took the gamble based on Irving's talent and he lost.

As of now I'm in the lukewarm camp too.  Stevens has positioned himself to make a big move next year so it's hard to judge him until then.  Hopefully Stevens' moves improve the culture this year, and hopefully next year we can make a real leap toward contending.

Get KAT!

[BudweiserCeltic]

Injuries more than inability or lack of "performance" screwed Ainge in the later years. He built some great teams, championship contender teams, but it wasn't meant to be. Potentially misusing the Gordon TPE is one of the more questionable things he did lately, but since he wasn't running the show for us to see the follow through with Fournier, we don't know. But Brad did put the remaining to good use, and got another sizable TPE our of Fournier... so not all bad on that regard.

Ainge's biggest problems where that he couldn't consolidate talent with all the draft picks he had, many of that has seemed to be that other organizations didn't want to trade with him (sometimes in hindsight for our benefit) or were asking ridiculous prices of him (then turn around and do "cheaper" deals with others). So he had a roster full of developing players eating up his cap space and not finding good value for them. At least we got some good players out of it, but we had too many developing players which became a bigger problem when injuries happened.

[jambr380]

Put me in the lukewarm camp until we see how this further plays out. If we are able to trade for a KAT or Siakam without giving up Tatum/Brown, then I will be impressed. The extensions were nice, but they are currently preventing us from going after a guy like Simmons. Yeah, I get it, it's Simmons, but he's an All-Star level player who would fit extremely well with Tatum and Brown.

I also see a lot of praise for the Kemba/Horford trade, but this was only about $$. Kemba's buy-out is about the same as Horford is scheduled to make the next two years. If we waive Horford in year 2, then we save around $13M. Was giving up Sengun or the two 1sts that OKC got for our pick worth one year of Horford and some cash?

I like Brad as a Danny successor and his moves so far have been 'okay' - and heck, maybe that's all we need - but I am not going to pretend that Danny wasn't one of the best GMs in this league for many years. If it weren't for the Hayward injury, we may be talking mini-dynasty right now. That Kyrie trade was one of the best in recent decades - talk about timing.

Not sure what your point of Simmons and the extensions is, they have nothing to do with each other.

Lol - it's like you personally took offense to that. The extensions are nice, but they limit our flexibility to make a big move until at least the deadline. I used Simmons as an example ('guy like' was in my post) as star player who may be had at a bargain, but we are essentially out on him as a suitor since our best non- Jays assets are now blocked out of trade discussions for several months. Whatever, I know this is small, but it limits our flexibility in the short-term.