TP
ainge tried to get CP3, he tried to get west, he tried to get love, and he probably tried to get other stars. it didn't pan out.
at that point we have two options: we either move forward with KG/pierce/rondo/green/bass/bradley, a core that's not a contender and yet takes up almost all of our cap space, or we go for a rebuild.
danny wisely chose the latter. he started with a mini-rebuild when he tried to get love/melo etc. that didn't work. after that he dumped rondo and green because they were likely gone to a better team unless we severely overpaid for them. unlike the lakers, he's gotten something for almost all the players that have left (even kris humphries and jordan crawford!).
the bottom line is that i have yet to see anyone lay out the plan for how ainge could have added any star players to the old core (and please don't say "aaron afflalo", etc, he's not a star). if he could have, he would have, ainge is a competitor and wants to contend as much as anyone, but good players didn't want to play with our old/mediocre core. once you accept that fact then the rest of what has happened makes a lot more sense and is easier to digest.
TP for you too.
Oh, the naysayers will have a plan. It's always one of the following two:
1. The occasional absolutely moronic poster who posts about all the guys Ainge "missed" while drafting because the guy can look at the 45 selections made after the Celtics' choice of that year and find one that was better than the guy Ainge drafted. Because 20/20 hindsight drafting is a plan (and don't mention that the Celtics draftee was better than 9 out of 10 picks drafted after the Celtics' choice). Somehow, that equates to terrible drafting.
2. A pipe dream plan that contains the following elements (A) Rondo was staying; (B) Rondo was resigning on a team-friendly deal; (C) Rondo is a top player in the league; and (D) Rondo magically will attract other free agents who are just dying to play with him.
Those are the two "plans" you see from these kind of folks.
Danny's been walking a fine line between "rebuild" and "reload" ever since Rondo went down to his ACL injury. He held out hope for a simpler reload process as long as was reasonably possible while at the same time ensuring he didn't make stupid moves that would hurt a total rebuild should that become necessary. It has and now he's committed to the total rebuild. He's trying something that has never been tried before in the NBA. He's accumulated an enormous amount of tradeable assets that cost other teams nothing (draft picks) and simultaneously having the cap space to take on any salary that he deems worthwhile.
Boston can facilitate a trade of any player to any team in this league. That kind of leverage is incredible and hasn't really been seen by anyone. Need to move player X for player Y but can't make the deal work? Call Danny! He's got space, TPEs, picks, you name it...
Boston has essentially cornered the next two drafts. No, they won't use all of their picks. They will trade some of those by the time the draft rolls around. But NO TEAM IN HISTORY has ever had that many opportunities to improve their teams to that extent in the draft. If the draft is a game of craps, Danny has more turns at the table than anyone else ever. Yes, he may roll a bunch of snake-eyes in a row - it could happen - but odds are it won't.
