A Salute to Cold, Hard, Calculating Danny Ainge

[KobeShesNotConsenting!]

I'll salute Danny without knowing the season's outcome.  He's got ice water in his veins, which is what you need in times like this.  In any business you want an executive who can and will make decisions with the imperfect information which is all that is ever available.  Not all those decisions will totally pan out, but you want that kind of exec anyway.

My sentiments exactly. The thing i love bout it is the majority have acted negative towards this, and yet Danny has the balls to do it. So many gm's in this league couldn't handle that heat. Lots are all about fan reaction and appearances, this guy wants to win. He wants to win now, and prepare to win later cus he saw what happened to pierce. He doesn't want to waste rondo's prime years so he took a chance at getting a head start on the future at the same time helping now.

[LilRip]

the gm who gets dwight deserves to be GM of the year. best center in the league.

[barefacedmonk]

My sentiments exactly. The thing i love bout it is the majority have acted negative towards this, and yet Danny has the balls to do it. So many gm's in this league couldn't handle that heat.

He's had to face all this heat after he made the trade...so "yet Danny has the balls to do it" is a bit meaningless.

[garz]

the gm who gets dwight deserves to be GM of the year. best center in the league.

This is a team game. Selfish immature players are no good for chemistry. Look at Carmello. Howard has become more self involved than he already was. GMs would be wise to go after players who have good character and play for their teammates.

Edit: Maybe not, because players like howard seem to bring in all the money, but if winning is the priority then I think what I said is true.

[Megatron]

Salute Ainge for what? Destroying our chemistry and chances at a title? Screw him and I hope hes fired.

[garz]

Salute Ainge for what? Destroying our chemistry and chances at a title? Screw him and I hope hes fired.

Green and Kristic seem like good character guys, and they know how it feels because OKC was close as well. The team will be even tighter because they all went through losing Perk and the other guys. It's possible team chemistry will be worse, but we can't know that before we've even seen them. They were the same team with the same chemistry in the Denver game as far as I could tell. Green and Kristic don't seem like dominating personalities so I don't see how they can affect it negatively. Bringing in Shaq was a much bigger gamble and that turned out okay.

[Bahku]

I'm pleased with what Danny has done for this team overall, but I'll hold off judgement on this move for now ... and I certainly don't see him as "cold, hard and calculating" ... calculating certainly, but he's motivated by money, so let's keep this in the right perspective.

[barefacedmonk]

Bringing in Shaq was a much bigger gamble and that turned out okay.

Shaq wooed us...we didn't woo Shaq. He knew he had to be a good soldier and buy into the system...he knew what he was getting into...so, the Shaq "gamble" was going to work out nevertheless.

[diehard celtic]

Yes...what a brilliant GM! Too soon for the "executive of the year" award?

You going to just post snarky sarcastic posts in every thread because your favorite player got traded? Or just in the ones about the trade?

I don't have one particular "favorite" player on this team...I like all of them. I don't like the Krstic acquistion...you do. Stop trying to police the people here. If you don't like it, don't read it.

I dislike Kristic too, I don't hate any Celtics but this guy is easily the one I least like after he threw that chair but who knew he would be on our team 

[barefacedmonk]

I think Danny is a good GM and give him big props for banner 17. However, besides those 2 trades that got us Ray and KG, what other "cold and calculating" trades has be pulled off. Nate for House?

His latest deal has the potential to totally explode in his face if we don't win banner 18...and the same people who are singing his praises will point guns at his head if we don't make it to the finals.

It's ironic how the whole blog  went ballistic when Danny didn't sign Powe...there was even a petition to bring him back...all because "Powe was a hard worker, good character guy who busted his butt off for this team". Why isn't Perk being measured with the same stick? Bill Walker and Tony Allen's departure got more people riled up than Perk's...unreal.

Championship now > being a relevant team in the near future.

[LilRip]

the gm who gets dwight deserves to be GM of the year. best center in the league.

This is a team game. Selfish immature players are no good for chemistry. Look at Carmello. Howard has become more self involved than he already was. GMs would be wise to go after players who have good character and play for their teammates.

Edit: Maybe not, because players like howard seem to bring in all the money, but if winning is the priority then I think what I said is true.

yes, it's a team game but you still need individuals to build around. Dwight is a good example of that type of individual. I don't know how you can classify him as selfish because he doesn't have ball-hog tendencies. He plays both ends of the court, not just the offensive side (like Melo or Wade). He sets picks. He fights for rebounds. Is he immature because he smiles a lot? seems like a pretty shallow reason. or is it because he complains to the refs? because if that were the case, we should all be glad we got rid of Perkins then.

I have yet to see him display melo-like tendencies of pouting about his situation and complaining about where he wants to go. As a matter of fact, he's deflected every question of the media that's asked him about his impending FA status in 2012. The talks of him wanting to go to LA, NY or CHI all come from "sources", not actually Dwight Howard. Recently, he's actually grown frustrated at all these circulating rumors.

Perhaps you can point to that series (against LA i think?) where he said that he thinks he should get the ball more, but then again, doesn't he have the right to call for the ball, especially when he thinks that it will give the team a better chance to win, when clearly the style of play that they were employing wasn't working? Even team-oriented guys like Pau Gasol have demanded the ball more through the media.

Dwight has shown a great desire to keep improving and expanding his game and i want that in a young player. Did you see his interview with Bill Russell? His workouts with Olajuwon? His offensive game now (not against the Celtics) compared to some few years ago? I don't know where you get the notion that he's so self-involved to the detriment of his teammates' play (like Iverson or Melo). We may not like him because he's the enemy but if he were wearing green, i'm sure we would love having him.



PS: he was pretty disenchanted following that Kings loss, calling out his teammates on lack of effort (not skill or not coz they suck), and he followed that game up with 40 points (16/20 from the field) and 15 rebounds while blocking 6 shots.

[KobeShesNotConsenting!]

My sentiments exactly. The thing i love bout it is the majority have acted negative towards this, and yet Danny has the balls to do it. So many gm's in this league couldn't handle that heat.

He's had to face all this heat after he made the trade...so "yet Danny has the balls to do it" is a bit meaningless.

Dont be silly. Danny was obviously heartbroken giving away perk, and knew others would feel the same as he was drafted here and grew into a man here, that's just common sense. but he had to do the smart business move. He clearly knew how close those guys were, way better than you or me knew by the way. And yet he did not act on emotion and got something good for perk while he could. It takes balls to make such a predictably unpopular move.

[barefacedmonk]

My sentiments exactly. The thing i love bout it is the majority have acted negative towards this, and yet Danny has the balls to do it. So many gm's in this league couldn't handle that heat.

He's had to face all this heat after he made the trade...so "yet Danny has the balls to do it" is a bit meaningless.

Dont be silly. Danny was obviously heartbroken giving away perk, and knew others would feel the same as he was drafted here and grew into a man here, that's just common sense. but he had to do the smart business move. He clearly knew how close those guys were, way better than you or me knew by the way. And yet he did not act on emotion and got something good for perk while he could. It takes balls to make such a predictably unpopular move.

You're saying Danny was heart broken in a thread where you're commending him for being "cold, hard and calculating"...lol.

Common sense, like you said, tells me that "heart broken" and "cold, hard and calculating" don't belong in the same argument.

[garz]

yes, it's a team game but you still need individuals to build around. Dwight is a good example of that type of individual. I don't know how you can classify him as selfish because he doesn't have ball-hog tendencies. He plays both ends of the court, not just the offensive side (like Melo or Wade). He sets picks. He fights for rebounds. Is he immature because he smiles a lot? seems like a pretty shallow reason. or is it because he complains to the refs? because if that were the case, we should all be glad we got rid of Perkins then.

I have yet to see him display melo-like tendencies of pouting about his situation and complaining about where he wants to go. As a matter of fact, he's deflected every question of the media that's asked him about his impending FA status in 2012. The talks of him wanting to go to LA, NY or CHI all come from "sources", not actually Dwight Howard. Recently, he's actually grown frustrated at all these circulating rumors.

Perhaps you can point to that series (against LA i think?) where he said that he thinks he should get the ball more, but then again, doesn't he have the right to call for the ball, especially when he thinks that it will give the team a better chance to win, when clearly the style of play that they were employing wasn't working? Even team-oriented guys like Pau Gasol have demanded the ball more through the media.

Dwight has shown a great desire to keep improving and expanding his game and i want that in a young player. Did you see his interview with Bill Russell? His workouts with Olajuwon? His offensive game now (not against the Celtics) compared to some few years ago? I don't know where you get the notion that he's so self-involved to the detriment of his teammates' play (like Iverson or Melo). We may not like him because he's the enemy but if he were wearing green, i'm sure we would love having him.



PS: he was pretty disenchanted following that Kings loss, calling out his teammates on lack of effort (not skill or not coz they suck), and he followed that game up with 40 points (16/20 from the field) and 15 rebounds while blocking 6 shots.

I'm sure I would hate to see him on the Celtics. Him being on the magic has nothing to do with it. I don't just hate everyone who isn't on the Celtics. He's always slagging off his coach and teammates to the media. You think because he puts up big numbers that makes it okay? That's not a team player; that's not productive. That just shows he is all about himself. He's passive aggressive and non-confrontational. He doesn't understand sacrifice. Yea he smiles too much on the court. He giggles to himself and can barely contain his glee when he knows the cameras are on him. I could go on about this but it's probably better to just say personally I don't like him and I don't want him wearing the Celtic uniform.

[Celtics4ever]

Are we a better team today than yesterday? 

Metaphorically speaking, of course, not literally.

We simply don't know yet as much remains unanswered.  I know we played well without Perk earlier in the year but he will be missed.  Of all the other pieces, Erden will be most missed.   We don't have proof of a rumored buy out yet so its nervewracking.  We have not seen Jermaine play again or Shaq so its nervewracking as well.

I think Jeff Green really adds some pop and flexability to our bench.  Krstic is better than Erden, IMHO.  Still, we have to get lucky for a buyout but if we do I think we will be a better team assuming the O'Neals come back.   We also got a possible replacement for the Captain down the road and a running mate for Rondo.