Credit to Ainge?

[gift]

This is Brad and Ime's team. Props to them for turning it around. But how much credit goes to Ainge? He left this team with:

Jayson Tatum
Jaylen Brown
Marcus Smart
Robert Williams
Grant Williams
Payton Pritchard

And it's fair to say these two wouldn't be on the team now if not for Ainge's prior moves:

Al Horford - who Ainge never got rid of and may have helped plan the return of last season
Daniel Theis - who Ainge only traded away because of that missed shot in Chicago 

It seems like Brad put the Derrick White icing on the otherwise Danny Ainge cake.

[Donoghus]

Absolutely deserves a lot of credit. He built this core.  He also managed not to panic and pick it apart.

[18isGREATERthan72]

I think the biggest change for this team has been the hiring of Ime.  It was rough early, but he clearly seems to have taken them to another level that Brad couldn't.  Not that Brad isn't a brilliant coach, just something didn't seem to click with the players and him.

In regards to the makeup of the team, it's probably 90% Ainge.  The players that are here are almost entirely his work.  Brad has made some nice adjustments that have panned out very well and helped round out the roster, but the meat and potatoes of it was Ainge (Tatum, Brown, Marcus, and Rob)

I honestly feel like if the Celtics win the Championship this season, then Ainge deserves to get a ring for it, even if he's not with the organization currently.  This is the team he built for sure.

[seancally]

Ainge trading down for Tatum in the draft is one of the all-time great GM moves. For that alone he deserves enormous credit.

I presume Stevens had some input for a few of those moves. Maybe not as a decision-maker but he was definitely on the list of those consulted.

[Surferdad]

I think the biggest change for this team has been the hiring of Ime.  It was rough early, but he clearly seems to have taken them to another level that Brad couldn't.  Not that Brad isn't a brilliant coach, just something didn't seem to click with the players and him.

In regards to the makeup of the team, it's probably 90% Ainge.  The players that are here are almost entirely his work.  Brad has made some nice adjustments that have panned out very well and helped round out the roster, but the meat and potatoes of it was Ainge (Tatum, Brown, Marcus, and Rob)

I honestly feel like if the Celtics win the Championship this season, then Ainge deserves to get a ring for it, even if he's not with the organization currently.  This is the team he built for sure.

Sorry but no way. I was always an Ainge supporter, but he works for another NBA team now. He bought the parts but didn't assemble the car (Brad did) or run the car (Ime does).

[jambr380]

I think the biggest change for this team has been the hiring of Ime.  It was rough early, but he clearly seems to have taken them to another level that Brad couldn't.  Not that Brad isn't a brilliant coach, just something didn't seem to click with the players and him.

In regards to the makeup of the team, it's probably 90% Ainge.  The players that are here are almost entirely his work.  Brad has made some nice adjustments that have panned out very well and helped round out the roster, but the meat and potatoes of it was Ainge (Tatum, Brown, Marcus, and Rob)

I honestly feel like if the Celtics win the Championship this season, then Ainge deserves to get a ring for it, even if he's not with the organization currently.  This is the team he built for sure.

Brad went to 3 conference Finals, including a game 7 where he was without All-Stars Kyrie and Hayward. I like Ime, am happy he is here, and am glad he helped turn around whatever happened last year. But Brad consistently got the most out of his players and his team. Ime isn't there yet, but he certainly has the potential.

And, yeah, of course this team is almost 100% on Ainge. I liked the Brad hire, but if we're judging who is more competent at their job right now - it's Ime over Brad by far.

[Celtics2021]

I generally agree that Ainge’s fingerprints are still all over this team (how could they not be?), but I’m not at all sure that Ainge laid the groundwork for Horford returning.  There’s really no evidence that I’ve at all seen of this oft-repeated hypothesis.

[Donoghus]

I think the biggest change for this team has been the hiring of Ime.  It was rough early, but he clearly seems to have taken them to another level that Brad couldn't.  Not that Brad isn't a brilliant coach, just something didn't seem to click with the players and him.

In regards to the makeup of the team, it's probably 90% Ainge.  The players that are here are almost entirely his work.  Brad has made some nice adjustments that have panned out very well and helped round out the roster, but the meat and potatoes of it was Ainge (Tatum, Brown, Marcus, and Rob)

I honestly feel like if the Celtics win the Championship this season, then Ainge deserves to get a ring for it, even if he's not with the organization currently.  This is the team he built for sure.

Sorry but no way. I was always an Ainge supporter, but he works for another NBA team now. He bought the parts but didn't assemble the car (Brad did) or run the car (Ime does).

Agreed on no ring but if they do win a title with predominantly Danny's guys, then I think the organization should seriously entertain the thought of either retiring his number or putting "Danny" or something up in the rafters.

[Moranis]

Obviously Ainge drafted most of the key members of the team, but Stevens put the final pieces together.  Stevens undid Ainge's mistakes in Walker (and Fournier).  Stevens added size.  Stevens had a great summer and an even better trade deadline.  Stevens created the framework and flexibility to acquire White.  And Stevens hired Idoka.  Saying that all Stevens did was put the icing on top of Ainge's cake just isn't accurate and takes basically all of the credit away from Stevens that he deserves. 

[Roy H.]

I’d give him a ring.  Wasn’t he providing consultation services this season?

There’s plenty of credit to go around.  Danny bought most of the groceries, Brad came up with the recipe, and Ime cooked the dinner.

[GreenlyGreeny]

One of the biggest mistakes made by Danny, and possibly the move that cost him the job, was letting Horford walk over money. All we did was win with Horford in 2016-2019, our first major free agent signing in forever back in 2016, and presently. Horford does all the little things that help us win, including mentorship and tremendous defensive leadership. He’s Captain Intangible. It’s telling that Brad’s very first move as GM was bringing back Horford. There’s absolutely zero evidence Ainge had anything to do with that, and when I repeatedly suggested the idea of bringing back Horford by dumping Kemba about a year ago, many folks told me there’s “no way” Danny would do that and admit an error quite like that. These are the same people who thought Danny would also be around forever.

In addition to bringing back Horford, hiring Ime is proving to be as much of a stroke of brilliance as anything Danny has done since the acquisition of Tatum. Finally, moving different pieces to get Richardson, et al. and then quickly turning all of that into Derrick White and the return of Daniel Theis (another Danny mistake last year that has been fixed) has really helped us bring the defense to a world-class level that may make us the champions in fewer than 100 days (and these moves have certainly given us a really good bench, unlike the worst-in-class bench of 2020-2021)…

Food for thought: If win the title, that would make Brad the guy who got us ahead of the Lakers again whereas Danny will forever be the guy who oversaw the Lakers tying us…

Bottom-line: This is Brad’s roster (he could have traded anybody he wanted this summer), this is Brad’s selected coach, and do not forget that Brad (by virtue of being head coach at the time) had a hand in the drafting of Smart, Tatum, Brown, Timelord, Grant and Payton. If folks want another type of hypothesis, how about this: Perhaps a few of those players are only here because Brad lobbied so heavily for them? Just a thought…

Lastly, repeat after me: Danny Ainge is a member of the Utah Jazz organization (you know, the team we beat by almost 30 points last night?). Danny has moved on and y’all need to move on from the Danny Worship. When I think of Danny, all I ever think about is him asking Red to trade Larry Legend (with Red’s appropriate response of trading Danny), and then stories I’ve heard from ordinary people about what Danny is like in RL outside the courts (not one to repeat that sort of stuff, but let’s just say I’m very happy he’s no longer our favorite team’s leader). 

[droopdog7]

Ainge gets full credit for the Jays.  Heck, he gets extra credit for Tatum, who absolutely no one thought we would get.  Remember the board going ballistic when DA traded the first pick.  Brown was similarly far from the consensus pick at #3.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Ainge gets full credit for the Jays.

Do we really think our head coach had no say in the matter? I’d love folks to name some comparable draft selections by Danny (even someone comparable to Timelord) when Doc was coach…

Here’s a thought: Perhaps the reason why ownership was so confident having Brad as GM is because Wyc knows who really nailed it with the draft selections behind the scenes? And knows who was right about it being a mistake to not keep Horford and Theis?

Ainge (alongside the boneheads in Brooklyn) gets full credit for fleecing the Nets, which brought us the Jays. He also gets full credit for getting extremely lucky in acquiring KG (no fleecing of the Nets without KG), which was the most consequential thing to happen to the franchise in the past 35 years (otherwise, Danny would have been out of a job by the late 2000s…). Finally, he gets credit for bringing Brad here, although if it wasn’t Danny bringing him into the NBA, it would have been the GM of the Pacers sooner or later, at the very least.

We are extremely fortunate to have Brad Stevens leading this organization. It’s ultimately why we are feeling invincible and on top for the first time since 2008.

[18isGREATERthan72]

I think the biggest change for this team has been the hiring of Ime.  It was rough early, but he clearly seems to have taken them to another level that Brad couldn't.  Not that Brad isn't a brilliant coach, just something didn't seem to click with the players and him.

In regards to the makeup of the team, it's probably 90% Ainge.  The players that are here are almost entirely his work.  Brad has made some nice adjustments that have panned out very well and helped round out the roster, but the meat and potatoes of it was Ainge (Tatum, Brown, Marcus, and Rob)

I honestly feel like if the Celtics win the Championship this season, then Ainge deserves to get a ring for it, even if he's not with the organization currently.  This is the team he built for sure.

Brad went to 3 conference Finals, including a game 7 where he was without All-Stars Kyrie and Hayward. I like Ime, am happy he is here, and am glad he helped turn around whatever happened last year. But Brad consistently got the most out of his players and his team. Ime isn't there yet, but he certainly has the potential.

And, yeah, of course this team is almost 100% on Ainge. I liked the Brad hire, but if we're judging who is more competent at their job right now - it's Ime over Brad by far.

I believe Brad went to 2 ECF with this current core, which is the team that also seemingly shut him out.  The 3rd one, the only players that were on the team then and now were Marcus and Al, and rookie Jaylen who didn't really play, so I wouldn't really count that one.

Those teams also had a very different makeup.  Tatum and Brown were rookies / 2nd/ 3rd year players.  They hadn't established themselves as stars.  They were punching above their weight, which Brad has historically shown the ability to do.  Get his teams to punch above their weight.

The main issue people had with Brad was that he seemingly couldn't get the most out of star players.  Under Brad, when this team had high expectations, they underachieved, and when they had low expectations, they overachieved.

Obviously Ime hasn't achieved anything in the post season yet, but I think we can all agree this team is playing with more focus / hustle / energy collectively than they ever did under Brad, right? That was the knock on the team under Brad.  Inconsistency and lack of effort.

[todd_days_41]

Ainge struggled a little in his final few years, including the Walker signing, total whiffs on Langford and Nesmith (continuing his odd trend of total inability to make picks in the teens), letting Max Strus go, the bizarre contract handed to Carson Edwards, and of course trading the pick used to select Bane — who just set the record for most 3s in a season for Memphis.

However, it’s only fair to point out that this season Williams, Williams, and Pritchard have shown themselves to be excellent draft value (in 2 cases) to an absolute steal (in the other), considering all we’re taken in the 20s.

Good redemption for Ainge, who overall was a HOF GM.