Danny's plan is to remain flexible.
Plan is currently working.
This feeds the people saying he has no plan. How is staying flexible a plan?
I think it's pretty clear that draft capital was important to Danny and that he tried to get it through a combination of tanking and trades, but wasn't willing to give up all the talent on his team in order to tank. I don't think this has anything to do with flexibility because he forfeited the chance of taking a top 3 draft prospect and didn't succeed in trading up in the draft or trading for a superstar. He is NOW making moves to preserve his flexibility in post.
Getting the picks from Brooklyn wasn't meant just for draft capital. Part of The reason for them was because up until the moment you use them they can be used in trades. I think Ainge certainly thought he would be bad enough for at least two lottery picks in '14 and '15. His team outperformed expectations. The extra picks are becoming good draft insurance though, if one or both of the picks this year hit the top 10 of the lottery we kinda tanked without tanking, no?
He's pretty much said this whole entire time that remaining flexible was a primary concern. If your rebuilding, you wanna cash in your players for long term assets, maintain flexible cap space and play yourself into a lottery pick or two. I think between Thomas and Johnson he's improved the team to the point of a 40-50 win team but because of their easily moveable deals we remain flexible enough to pivot in any direction we need to. It's just going into year 3, were in pretty good shape.
Sometimes building through the draft doesn't work out. Sometimes going the FA route doesn't work out, sometimes waiting for a big trade doesn't work out. The smartest way to go about it, IMO, is to have the flexibility to go through whichever one presents itself. We have a young, talented team that was good enough to make a major leap after losing their two best (and some of the oldest) players. If we want to, we can go right to total youth movement in no time. But we also have picks coming from Dallas and Brooklyn that look lottery bound, so we have draft assets. We maintained the flexibility to go into next summer with a big chunk of cap room and multiple enticing trade assets. Just imagine if we end up with picks #5, #10 and #18 plus two picks at the top of the 2nd and a whole bunch of cap room, non-guaranteed contracts and trade-able players. You've got all three bases covered in very advantageous ways.
Heck, even if those picks end up at #9, #13 and #16, that's still a good deal. Lots of excellent players have been picked in the mid-late lottery. If nothing works out on the FA and trade front in that scenario, that's when I'd lean toward Ainge getting rid of Johnson, Jerebko, Lee, Turner, Sully et all and try to move up again (more possible with that package) then build around your last 3 or 4 years worth of draft picks. We have the flexibility to do that because even though we got a few guys who make us better, but not great, were not tied down in any long term commitments to underachieving role players.
