The Tatum pick was a home run and Ainge deserves a ton of credit for that. Jaylen was considered a bit of a reach but he was just taken outright at #3 with Simmons and Ingram going ahead of him as expected. Awesome pick as well. But the 2017 one, almost everyone including myself thought Fultz was the clear #1 and Ball was #2. National media agreed. Ainge went against the grain though and still traded down, got Tatum at #3 and also netted an extra first rounder which ultimately helped them trade for Derrick White.
The 2017 one was genius by Ainge and he deserves a ton of credit for getting Tatum in those circumstances. He made the right pick and it wasn't "obvious" to everyone at the time, but clearly it's a home run now.
Ainge got the core (Tatum, Brown, Smart who ultimately led to Porzingis) largely thanks to the BKN trade and other things, while Stevens after taking over has done a great job building the overall roster, being aggressive and also supplementing the Jays as best as possible.