I didn't realize that we were in a "win now" mold. I would have said that the tanking ship has clearly sailed and that the rebuild continues. None of us know how long this will take. We do know that DA is positioned well to "dance" if he can find a partner.
The term 'rebuild' in my eyes refers to a team that is selling pretty much tearing everything up to start over with a clean slate. When Ainge was letting contracts expire and trading out seemingly every productive player over the age of 25 (Green, Rondo, Thornton, etc) for draft picks and cap space / TPE's then that to me is a rebuild.
Last year I think Ainge was in 100% rebuild mode - until the team caught him by surprise, dominated the second half of the season, and actually made the playoffs. That's when I think something clicked in his head and left him thinking "hey - we can find a way to add a key player or two, we might being able to really make some noise in the East!". That (I think) is when the team philosophy shifted from "rebuild mode" to "seriously trying to win lots of games" mode.
I think David Lee trade and the Amir Johnson signing are clear evidence of this.
Gerald Wallace would have been on a $10M expiring contract this season, and he contributed absolutely nothing to the win column for this team. Ainge traded Wallace for David Lee who is on a $15M expiring contract, and who (if he plays) is likely to contribute significantly to the win column for this team.
Now Boston didn't actually gain anything from this trade financially since the only other player they gave up was Babb (who was non-guaranteed, and could have been waived anyway). The extra $5m in expiring isn't much of an incentive since that basically came out of Boston's own cap for this year. The only benefit Boston gets from this deal, really, is that Lee is a better player than Wallace and more likely to actually contribute on the court.
Likewise, Amir Johnson is a guy who is approaching his 30's, doesn't rally have any upside, and isn't the type of star you build around. He is most known for his ability to do all the little things that help a team win games, with little concern for his own personal stats. Not the type of guy you showcase for his stats and then try to trade off later. He's the type of guy you acquire if you want to win more games. So seeing Danny sign him outright to a 2 year deal was another clear sign to me that Ainge wants to win, and win now.
I think we all need to remember that this is the Boston Celtics - it's a proud franchise that has a reputation to live up to. If you're a guy in Danny Ainge's position, I don't think you want to be known as the guy who embarrassed the franchise through 5 years of tanking. All the stuff that's going on in Philly - I don't think that flies in Boston. Not saying it's bad approach or anything, just saying that I think Philly and Boston are teams with different mentalities about what is an ethically acceptable approach to rebuilding.
Remember there was a lot of talk about Boston wanting to go after Marc Gasol in the offseason, and he's not really any younger than Melo.
Honestly, I think you'll find that Danny is building this team of versatile support players so that when the chance to acquire a star (any star) comes up he can slot that star in, already have the support pieces in place, and instantly have himself a contender.
I think you'll find that if ANY star player who is within their prime (Melo included) became avaialble, Ainge would pounce on them in a heartbeat. Like with the draft, I think Ainge's mentality is always "take the best player avaiable and work the rest out".
