“I’ve been saying all along that the experts on ESPN and so forth are blowing this draft out of proportion,” Ainge said. “First of all, we don’t even know who’s in the draft yet. There are a lot of underclassmen that are projected, so we’re prepared for those underclassmen that are projected draft picks but we don’t know who’s going to be in the draft.
“There aren’t any game changers in the draft. There are a lot of nice players and players that we’ll be excited to work into the development, but they’re not going to come in and turn our team around in one year or two years. But hopefully we’ll be able to get a couple of players this year that will be rotation players in the NBA for years to come.”
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/03/26/danny-ainge-says-there-are-no-game-changers-in-this-draft-in-short-term-hes-right/
First Take just did a section of their show on these comments and Seth Greenburg at ESPN on First Take completely agreed with Ainge. He called most of the players this year as suspects not prospects. He said every player has major concerns and there are no sure things, even amongst the top 3 or 4 players.
When should fans start to trust what Ainge is saying rather than poo-poo his comments saying they are lies because Ainge is playing games? Ainge called Olynyk a complimentary player. Seems the team has used him in that manner and that KO is pretty much a complimentary player. Ainge called Bradley the best defensive guard in the league right after he drafted him. Turns out he was talking the truth again. He called Melo a major project.
I think its time to trust what Danny is saying about this draft class and temper our expectations regarding how anyone the Celtics get in the draft this year will be helping our team in the near future.
exactly what type of "expectations" do you think people have?
It's pretty apparent that Ainge is approaching this draft with a steady and cool head, much like he seems to do with most things. I mean, he even talks about Rondo's impending free agency the same way, and i assume that matter is of utmost importance.
since he's our GM, i'm glad he always takes this approach. That said, I'm not convinced he's saying this draft class is bad or anything close to the sort. i mean, even his first point of "we don't know who will be in the draft" sounds safe and evasive.
And then he says "but they’re not going to come in and turn our team around in one year or two years", which IMO is a perfectly reasonable statement for anyone to say in any year about any draft class. Before Lebron or Durant was drafted, i doubt any GMs went to the media saying "If we're able to draft Durant, he's going to change our team's fortunes in his first two years."
Those are extremely high standards, and as a GM, he could be setting unrealistic expectations for both the player and the fanbase (which will grow to resent the player if expectations are not met). I mean, even Kevin Durant's team won only about 20-23 games in his first two seasons.
Topic: Ainge continues to down play this year's draft class (Read 7513 times)