I don't understand why you are trying to find ways to defend other GMs' (more) significant mistakes but have trouble applying similar logic to Ainge. You are not being objective here at all. The '08 Celtics were pretty much built without Ainge drafting in the top 10 also (traded #5 for Ray Allen). No one is even saying Ainge is infallible or whatever like you believe. People are just saying you are completely exaggerating his mistakes. When your worst mistake as GM is literally drafting Fab Melo in the 20s or not convincing Tony Allen to stay when he wanted a larger role, you are doing a great job as a GM.
I can only imagine what some of you would be saying if Ainge made a trade like OKC and got rid of Harden. Also, if Ainge traded Leonard for Hill, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be using the "but he needed a PG" logic with Ainge. You would DEFINITELY use that as a negative against Ainge unlike what you are doing for Bird. People would be going to his house with pitchforks. Like I said before, I really don't think you are understanding how often most other GMs in this league make mistakes (much bigger than Ainge). The only GM I would take over Ainge is Buford, and even then, I'm unsure how successful a GM he would be without the greatest player-coach tandem since Russell-Red. I'll give credit where credit is due, though, and recognize him (Buford) as the best GM in the NBA. After that, though? I'll take Ainge.
Presti is a nice drafter, but he seems generally incompetent when it comes to trading and recognizing how valuable coaching is (took FAR too long to fire Brooks). He's also been pretty mediocre at finding the right pieces in free agency to surround Durant and Westbrook. Morey learned literally everything from Ainge, and it is surprising you would have him over Ainge in the drafting department considering sample size. I have no idea why. And in what world is Minnesota better at drafting than Boston? Flip has been GM for TWO years.
Really feels like you just threw a bunch of team names at a wall and just said "see, these teams are better at drafting," but most of them really are not or have very little reason to be put above Ainge (especially considering Minnesota...where Flip has been GM for a year or two...).
EDIT: Also, baseless loyalty gets you no where if you are GM. I'm not really sure how you consider Bird loyal (more-so than Ainge at least), though, considering he dropped Lance like a bad habit, and has been very outward in the media about how Hibbert may not fit what the Pacers want to do in the future. Considering how easily Hibbert's confidence is shaken, that is a terrible thing to say in public about one of your players. Ainge? Not sure where he is any worse in this department. Where does loyalty get you? Pretty much a tied up cap with a former star that can't understand he is getting worse and a guy no one in the league wants to play with anymore (Kobe and his awesome 48 million dollar extension). Ainge gave KG/PP a proper send off, and they have no ill-will towards Ainge. Pierce is even likely to come back and be apart of the front office if I was a betting man. When Ainge trades his dudes, they have pretty much been all to contenders. Brooklyn was supposed to be a contender. Rondo went to a west contender in Dallas. Perk went to OKC. Green and Lee went to Memphis. Even Walker got treated pretty well and was traded to Dallas back in the day. He treats these guys right, man, and rarely ever sends them to NBA hell if he has the power not to.
The only GM in the league who I consider loyal is pretty much Mark Cuban and Mitch. Cuban is a super fan, but at least to his credit, he's been able to find the right pieces to keep the engine going for a bit longer (even if he made a mistake with Rondo..).
I would prefer to build organically and develop within, but unfortunately that's not how the NBA works really. Unless you draft a super-super-super star like Lebron or Durant, you pretty much HAVE to treat all of your draft picks, rookies, and second year players like pawns until the right mix comes along. That's just how the NBA works. I mean, I'd love to have a team like the Pacers..no top 10 picks...built organically, etc. but they are never winning a championship if they continue building this way. They are going to have make tough decisions and drop some players that you think they are "loyal" to because they need a biiitttt more talent.
I actually thought that letting TA go was one of his best moves, and you're absolutely right about Harden. That's the one area in which Presti struggles, imo, and even more so than coaching. Now, in fairness to him, he's in a smaller market like us, so maybe his owner is cheap like Bird's and won't let him spend the money he needs to retain a guy like Harden, but it goes without saying that you can't replace a guy like that simply with prospects and picks. This isn't baseball, and even in that sport, like any other, it's nearly impossible to replace an all star like that.
Would I have been ticked if Ainge had traded Leonard for Hill? Well, yes, but in this scenario, are you trying to paint a picture where Ainge has Bird's roster, because if so, at least we'd still have PG
. You're also forgetting that I said that, even if Bird had just switched draft spots with the Spurs and gotten his point guard through free agency like Aaron Brooks, which he should have done in the first place, that could have ultimately yielded Jimmy Butler, so if the swap would have been Butler for Leonard, I'm perfectly okay with that, because that Pacers team would have been a monster on both ends. Larry might call out his players, but Ainge does exactly the same (go look at the article by Bill Simmons), and the major difference between the two is that Bird would never look to move hall of famers like Ray Allen, let alone from practically the first day on which they got here. That's what really bothers me. Danny finally gets these amazing players, and then he tries to trade all of them at one point or another (and this isn't even including Rondo), smh? That just makes no sense to me.
Speaking of Rondo, and this comes back to Ainge's draft record, how can Danny go from getting an incredible player like him at 21, to taking JR Giddens? I don't mind his use of the brain guy or whatever, but at some point, if that dude keeps recommending guys like Giddens, Hudson, Jajuan Johnson (btw, I know that I've asked this before, but I can't remember, so why is he referred to as JJJ?), and Melo, then I think it's time to let him go. Is he working with Ms. Cleo, lol
?
At some point, all of this stuff, whether it's the brain guy or how well a guy performs at the combine, is paralysis by over analysis, imo. I think it's great that they look into guys' backgrounds and such, but at the same time, a lot of great scouting was done for 40-50 years by guys like Red and Jerry West without all of this junk. It doesn't matter to me how well a guy might perform in workouts or these stupid drills. What matters is how well the dude plays in games, especially in the big moments. There have been numerous examples, iirc, of guys not doing well at the combine or drills, only to have outstanding careers, and Paul Pierce is the perfect example of this. I just think that we should keep it simple. Do the medical stuff and look into his background, yes, but I wouldn't base a selection entirely on how well a certain guy does at a workout. Well, for the most part, anyway, because Kobe destroyed Michael Cooper in 1996, and that pretty much was the proof that Jerry West needed.
As far as loyalty goes, I keep mentioning it because that was the way in which the Celtic tradition was built, and imo, it's the best way to do things - that way, these guys can actually buy apartments or houses without fear of being traded at any time. I'm telling you, any guy that plays for the Celtics shouldn't bother acquiring such real estate, because as long as Ainge is here, they might as well live in a hotel with a bag packed at all times so that they're ready to go at a moment's notice, lol
. It sounds ridiculous, but I'm serious.
Btw, didn't Flip get Zach LaVine at 13, Glenn Robinson III at 40, and Markel Brown at 44 last year, not to mention his trading of Trey Burke for Shabazz Muhammed and Gorgui Dieng (and we don't even need to talk about Wiggins)? I'd say that that's pretty impressive.
Finally, Cuban just assembles retro video game teams, haha
, imo, and is the Mitch to whom you're referring Mitch Kupchak? Just checking. I'm not sure if he's really in charge, right now, though, because Jim Buss appears to be calling a lot of, if not all of, the shots, or at least it would seem that way, which is perfectly fine with me, lol
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Topic: Sherrod Blakely- C's to put a package deal for Aldridge and Matthews (Read 73835 times)