Ainge's strategy

[shut_the_gate]

I know things have been frustrating, but Danny is doing a fantastic job.

Instead of throwing all his eggs in one basket (like a lot of people on here are suggesting), he is structuring himself for all possibilities. He has drafted the best possible players in smart, young, sully and olynyk instead of drafting for current need. He has kept on many vets to help develop younger players mentally and physically, even though they are expensive. Everyone has questioned his decisions to resign Green and Bradley to expensive deals but both are having career seasons. What he is doing is developing his talent to the best of their abilities to either develop a team cornerstone like Rondo or flip them for maximum value.

I truly believe we will get a superstar when the next one is available. He came close to Love, it was only Lebron and bad luck in the draft that stopped that. I think if OKC struggle next season Durant will want out and we are the best positioned for him if we can resign Rondo. If Rondo wants to go o free agency, what team can afford him that is a contender?

Keep the faith Beantown! In Danny we trust!

[Beat LA]

Ainge has a strategy?  You've already lost me, lol .  Welcome to Celticsblog, btw!

[255 Rings]

I know things have been frustrating, but Danny is doing a fantastic job.

Instead of throwing all his eggs in one basket (like a lot of people on here are suggesting), he is structuring himself for all possibilities. He has drafted the best possible players in smart, young, sully and olynyk instead of drafting for current need. He has kept on many vets to help develop younger players mentally and physically, even though they are expensive. Everyone has questioned his decisions to resign Green and Bradley to expensive deals but both are having career seasons. What he is doing is developing his talent to the best of their abilities to either develop a team cornerstone like Rondo or flip them for maximum value.

I truly believe we will get a superstar when the next one is available. He came close to Love, it was only Lebron and bad luck in the draft that stopped that. I think if OKC struggle next season Durant will want out and we are the best positioned for him if we can resign Rondo. If Rondo wants to go o free agency, what team can afford him that is a contender?

Keep the faith Beantown! In Danny we trust!

I have plenty of faith, but in reality we were never that close in getting Love. As for the draft goes everyone just seemed to forget how rigged that was for Cleveland. It makes sense: Maintain LeBron's relevancy after his old Heat team broke apart, so the league hands the Cavs an undeserving pick that they can dangle to Minny for their star player. Cleveland didn't even have the worst record and wasn't even in the top 3 and yet somehow got their 3rd #1 pick since LeBron left and was due to come back. Philly is stupid to think that tanking is gonna help them in the long run. If the NBA sets their sights to reward another team because of revenue or fan interest they'll undoubtely hand one of the top 3 to a marketable team over the worst one. I'm sure Danny is just salivating at the chance to flip those assets for something huge. I hope he doesn't get too over-obsessive and aims too impossibly high and loses a chance to improve the roster. By 2016 we'll see the true construction of this team. It's all development for now and to try and win games as best as you can. We can be upset about this team but at least I'm positive this isn't gonna be a 22 year rebuild like the last. If you really want this team to be attractive outside of Ainge's assets the team captain, Rondo, definitely has to play to his standards. He's playing terrible right now and needs to ante up his scoring to a respectable 13 PPG a game to go with his league-leading assists. He was doing it pre- ACL and I'm sure he can do it again. That's the best way this team can set itself up for massive success. We can literally be a likable team in FA for players if they see a chance to suit up with us and go for the trophy. The assets can be moved for either great (not really star players, but borderline) players and even more star players. Hopefully the Mike Malone firing in Sac-town p---es off Cousins into demanding a trade a la Howard. We should definitely dump those picks and expiring contracts + players for a guy like that, he's emerging as a superstar! And yes, in Danny we trust!

[obnoxiousmime]

I know things have been frustrating, but Danny is doing a fantastic job.

Instead of throwing all his eggs in one basket (like a lot of people on here are suggesting), he is structuring himself for all possibilities. He has drafted the best possible players in smart, young, sully and olynyk instead of drafting for current need. He has kept on many vets to help develop younger players mentally and physically, even though they are expensive. Everyone has questioned his decisions to resign Green and Bradley to expensive deals but both are having career seasons. What he is doing is developing his talent to the best of their abilities to either develop a team cornerstone like Rondo or flip them for maximum value.

I truly believe we will get a superstar when the next one is available. He came close to Love, it was only Lebron and bad luck in the draft that stopped that. I think if OKC struggle next season Durant will want out and we are the best positioned for him if we can resign Rondo. If Rondo wants to go o free agency, what team can afford him that is a contender?

Keep the faith Beantown! In Danny we trust!

I agree with most of your points, with the exceptions being Bradley having a career year and the possibility of Durant coming here. Not just because Boston isn't good enough but due to the rising cap in 2016 EVERY team besides maybe Brooklyn will be under the cap. Durant is going to have his choice of franchises. It's very unlikely the Celtics can have enough veteran talent at that point to be a serious option, and in general Boston has never been a desirable location to begin with.

To be a legitimate option you'd need to at least have a rim protector and another All-Star somewhere. Remember, he needs to go to a team that will be better or as good as the one he's leaving. OKC when healthy is one of the top teams in the Western Conference already and they have Westbrook and Ibaka. Boston is still one of the worst teams in a historically bad Eastern Conference. It's very difficult to see a scenario where Boston can improve that much by 2016.

Like every other team OKC will also suddenly have cap space in 2016, which is good for an ownership group that is notoriously stingy. The best option may be for Durant to just re-sign and convince whatever top free agent is out there to come to Oklahoma.

Looking at the FA list, it's pretty shallow. However, a good fit would be Al Horford if he returns to form. A second option could be Ryan Anderson who would make their shooting pretty deadly. Other than that they could sign Chandler Parsons who plays the same position as Durant and isn't a great fit, but it'd be a case of just signing whoever the BPA is. They could play small and overwhelm teams with their speed and shooting.

[shut_the_gate]

This is true but as you pointed out OKC owners are notoriously cheep and they have had the option of signing big free agents but have declined to do so to keep the wages down, something I'm sure Durant is frustrated with as Harden was a good friend.

Also I doubt that Thunder will let Durant walk as a free agent, so what I meant earlier was that we have the best pieces for a trade, I can't think of another team can offer the same amount of talent picks and cap space like us.

I agree with your point of a rim protector being a necessity and hopefully we can pick one up this summer free agency, either Jordan, Gasol, Asik, Lopez, Chandler or Hibbert or even in the upcoming draft with a large amount of talented centres on offer. I'd love to get Towns but knowing our luck in the draft i doubt it haha

[GreenWarrior]

I don't mind what Ainge has done. he's kept the team flexible.

the one thing I would change with Ainge is his love for tweeners and under-sized players.

[cb8883]

He has none. Terrible planning for a long time and Danny needs to go. No reason why this team should have spare parts like Bass Rondo Thornton Green etc that could help contenders. This team should be emulating the 76ers not the Hawks.Tanking is the only way not being a treadmill squad.

[Hawkeye199]

I know things have been frustrating, but Danny is doing a fantastic job.

Instead of throwing all his eggs in one basket (like a lot of people on here are suggesting), he is structuring himself for all possibilities. He has drafted the best possible players in smart, young, sully and olynyk instead of drafting for current need. He has kept on many vets to help develop younger players mentally and physically, even though they are expensive. Everyone has questioned his decisions to resign Green and Bradley to expensive deals but both are having career seasons. What he is doing is developing his talent to the best of their abilities to either develop a team cornerstone like Rondo or flip them for maximum value.


I personally did not like the olynyk draftee. he does not fit the celtics model of defense first. Deciding to rebuild is not putting all his egg's in one basket. It's doing what your supposed to do when you can't make the playoff's. I am sorry but if we try to add a star with rondo, I don't think we will be competitive for very long. I want and I think what b.s. wants is to mold the celtics into the spurs. That model is draft young and keep a solid core for a long time. I think we have two in sully and smart. Young has the potential to be to join them.So I think we need to start with this #tankfortowns. We need a big defensive center (aka tim ducan). by tanking for towns we would need to trade rondo and jeff green. most likely for picks or maybe a young sophomore in the league. they could joint our young core and make us the new spurs.#tankfortowns

[BitterJim]

He has none. Terrible planning for a long time and Danny needs to go. No reason why this team should have spare parts like Bass Rondo Thornton Green etc that could help contenders. This team should be emulating the 76ers not the Hawks.Tanking is the only way not being a treadmill squad.

How about we see how the 6ers plan works out before we declare it to be the best thing ever?  I( can understand being optimistic for their future, but it's not like they've won anything or are guaranteed to win anything.  They've made risky moves, and let's wait and see if they work out before declaring them future NBA champs

[LB3533]

Danny Ainge's strategy has been consistently inconsistent.

[Vermont Green]

We are currently a bad  team and there is not clear path or sure bet to how to remedy that.  There are lots of possibilities but by definition, possibilities involve an element of chance. Here are some possibilities that I see that may happen (in relative order of likelihood in my opinion).

1. Smart develops into a player that is as good as a pre-injury Derrick Rose.

2. One of the Nets picks we have result in a very high lottery pick and we snag a player that develops quickly into an All-Star.

3. We continue to assemble "assets" and then are able to make a big trade and get an all star (say Carmelo Anthony for example).

4. We resign Rondo, he suddenly awakens from his shooting/scoring funk, and plays for several years at an all star level and actually carries the team.

5.  We are able to sign some top free agents because due to Rondo and other factors, we are a destination for the top FAs.

Ainge's strategy is all of the above at this point.  All of these are unlikely unfortunately but if you put them all together and hope that we can achieve one or two, you can at least have some hope.  I am not expecting a quick fix.  I am bracing for a 3-5 year process before we are in any kind of serious discussion about titles again and if we don't have good luck along the way, it could be much longer.

[LooseCannon]

Danny Ainge's strategy has been consistently inconsistent.

Ainge's strategy has been pretty consistent. 

-Don't take on additional salary commitments beyond 2015
-Don't give up any first-round picks
-Be willing to violate those rules if a star becomes available
-Concentrate more on acquiring talent than filling positional needs
-Don't give away talent for pennies on the dollar

[TheTruthFot18]

Danny Ainge's strategy has been consistently inconsistent.

Ainge's strategy has been pretty consistent. 

-Don't take on additional salary commitments beyond 2015
-Don't give up any first-round picks
-Be willing to violate those rules if a star becomes available
-Concentrate more on acquiring talent than filling positional needs
-Don't give away talent for pennies on the dollar

Despite being hungover from 2007-2013 and not seeing any major splashes since Pierce and KG left, this is what is important moving forward. These first 2 and even 3 years of the rebuild have been and will be ugly but by the summer of 2016 we could have an entirely new team (which is interesting) but in reality I hope we have a star or two with our home grown players (Sully, KO, AB, SMart, Young, maybe Powell and Zeller).

[CFAN38]

I know things have been frustrating, but Danny is doing a fantastic job.

Instead of throwing all his eggs in one basket (like a lot of people on here are suggesting), he is structuring himself for all possibilities. He has drafted the best possible players in smart, young, sully and olynyk instead of drafting for current need. He has kept on many vets to help develop younger players mentally and physically, even though they are expensive. Everyone has questioned his decisions to resign Green and Bradley to expensive deals but both are having career seasons. What he is doing is developing his talent to the best of their abilities to either develop a team cornerstone like Rondo or flip them for maximum value.

I truly believe we will get a superstar when the next one is available. He came close to Love, it was only Lebron and bad luck in the draft that stopped that. I think if OKC struggle next season Durant will want out and we are the best positioned for him if we can resign Rondo. If Rondo wants to go o free agency, what team can afford him that is a contender?

Keep the faith Beantown! In Danny we trust!

I totally agree with your first thoughts you lose me in the part that I made bold. I would like to hope for a superstar coming to boston but I cant see it happening. If Durnat leaves OKC the celtics will not be the best position to resign him. Washington would prob be option A. then the rest of the bigger market teams will be on a pretty even playing field.

I see the DA plan as follow.

Step 1, blow up the roster

Step 2, accumulate assets (value FAs, draft picks, etc)

Step 3A, trade Rondo and place young high ceiling players at key positions and let team grow

Step 3B, resign Rondo and trade young talent to build contender around him.

I think this trade deadline is the cross roads for Step 3. There is also the outside chance that DA signs Rondo to a sub max deal and then trades him next season but this is a long shot. I think a key to keeping Rondo and rebuilding will be this draft. If the Cs get lucky and score a high value (top 5) pick then a team (like ATl) may be willing to move a star (horford) to go into rebuild. Even this may not be enough to build a contender that can realistically compete for a championship.

[celts10]

I think it comes down to Rondo, really.

If Rondo wants to remain here I think Ainge will retool on the fly in the offseason. If Rondo wants to go elsewhere, we continue the rebuild.