As the GM, his idea to compete for the future season is to make sure our team is not competitive this year, hope that the ping pong balls are lucky and land us game changing player.
All while, the GM install a mentality to our team that we are not good enough with players we have, so we'll ship them for picks so we'll suck even more. And then we get our savior and win us a Championship in the next 4-5 years, after the core of the team is already past his prime.
Danny Ainge is indeed one of the best. I believe he's also a coward from shying away from the challenge of building a winning team without giving the chance of winning the title. Clearly his best idea is to tank rather than draft well from where we are, be smart in signing free agents with the cap room that we have, and flip the assets we already have for that player or draft position we are looking for.
I get the idea, if this works then he's right, we'll be contenders in the future, for long stretches of time.
But what if he doesnt, what if we don't get lucky in the draft? What if we can't flip those multiple picks for someone we are looking for? We will be the Sacramento Kings.
i disagree with this on multiple points. i don't think DA is a "coward" and i don't think he didn't give the team a chance. i also don't think his mentality is "wiggins or bust" as a thread on here is named.
And i think you should use another team other than the Spurs as an example. Those Spurs wouldn't be the same team without Duncan who was the number 1 pick in the lottery and is arguably the greatest PF of all time. As a matter of fact, the Spurs are a prime example of a team that got LUCKY in the draft which is pretty much goes against your whole advocacy of having to depend on the lottery for a franchise-changing talent.
turn Duncan into a player like Brandon Bass and i doubt the Spurs make it very far into this year's playoffs even with Parker-Ginobili and the rest of the crew.
And we're assuming the same luck that the Spurs got for Duncan will go to us?
You're right, they are lucky but they DID NOT gave away their chance of competing for a shot at Duncan. They played and competed even with injuries and just so happened that we're bad without Robinson.
We are however, can still be a Playoff team, could very well contend, and have a very good GM who can fill in the blanks in order to be competitive in the next years to come. Add to it that we have assets already for this GM to shuffle around and flip into a player who can help us in the future.
Instead, this GM basically said screw competing, let's give away our leaders, who could have help in the development of young players, for late 1st rounders, a contract we will be stuck on for three years so will have a SHOT at a superstar and hope that we are lucky.
Great GM's like Ainge should not rely on luck, but with his skill, his smarts and his eye on scouting talent. Relying on luck is a cowardly way of doing things. He could be right and I HOPE TO BASKETBALL GODS that he is, we get lucky and get that player we wanted with what he did. Since this is a gamble, he could be wrong too, and we will be stuck in mediocrity.
I'd rather be in the Playoffs every year than be in mediocrity praying for luck that the balls bounce our way. And I sure hope the balls bounce our way, because if not, we're in for a long haul of rebuilding.
Yes, they were lucky which is why your whole argument alluding to them is immediately invalid.
Their current success is predicated on being lucky enough to draft Tim Duncan. You cited how role players like Neal and Green and Leonard played valuable minutes in their playoff run, and that they managed to remain competitive all these years without having to tank, but all that was made possible by getting lucky in that draft with Tim Duncan.
Furthermore, the Spurs last year held the #1 seed for most of the season, ended as a #2 seed, and made it all the way to the Finals. On the other hand, the C's were barely .500 even when Rondo was healthy. And for reference, the Spurs (pre-Duncan) were already like a 60-win team the season prior to being decimated by injuries. They weren't a barely .500 club with aging superstars. So no, they didn't need to tank because they already had a strong team.
If you noticed, not all the teams in the NBA are "tanking" or rebuilding like us. The Heat aren't tanking. The Thunder aren't tanking. 50 win teams don't tank because they know they already have something special. They know they have their core and all they'll need to do is build upon it. They're at that stage. Meanwhile, 2/3rds of the C's core is retiring in a year or two. We won't have them to build upon moving forward. Whether or not we'll tank next year (because the offseason isn't done), the rebuild is definitely underway.
We can be a playoff team, sure. It's easy to be a playoff team. Just ask the Hawks. But this is Boston and we play for titles, not for playoff seeds.
We need to be a contender. And that's hard. the C's team last year showed that they were no longer a contender. I think it was KG or Doc who said, we're more than one piece away. It's extremely hard to acquire a piece, let alone 2, and it gets even harder when we have to do so "without giving away our leaders" as you state it. Because let's face it, no one wants Courtney Lee, Bass, Terry. Our trash is no other team's treasure.
We have a very good GM, agreed, and that's why i applaud him for making this hard decision. It was definitely something i couldn't have done because i'm too attached to both Pierce and KG. Whether or not the trades will be wise, time will tell. But you're absolutely right that he shouldn't rely solely on luck.
What happened on draft night is only the beginning of even more trades/moves. If we don't win the lottery, there are still a plethora of options available to us. We could trade out of the draft for someone else's disgruntled star like Aldridge. We could trade up in the draft or trade down. Or even if we don't go the trading route, we could acquire a gem in the later picks. In our current stable of young players, only Jeff Green was picked in the lottery at #5.
To put anything close to a winning product on the floor, DA still needs to rely on "skill, smarts, eye for talent, etc." like you mentioned. I mean, even if we do win the lottery, and we're able to draft Wiggins, DA would still need every bit of skill and smarts to build a real contender. Cleveland lost Lebron. Denver lost Melo. Acquiring top talent via lottery does not mean the GM's job is done.
So don't think these of trades are cowardly. This is not the "easy way out". There is no easy way in building a contender. Even acquiring KG and Ray Allen took a lot of good drafting, stockpiling talent, trading for expired contracts, a lot of good timing, and a lot of luck.
Topic: This is why Danny Ainge is one of the best. (Read 10552 times)