I was browsing a bit in response to the various, "let's revisit our predictions from last summer!" threads and I found this article I wrote as a CB fanpost three years ago:
http://www.celticsblog.com/2013/2/22/4016162/doom-despair-or-danny-has-a-plan
This was my intro:
Just to get the punch line out of the way: Yes. Danny has a plan.
Actually - he has more than one plan. But they all lead basically to the same place - rebooting the team as a contender somewhere around 2016. So collectively, let's call them: The Plan
There is a lot of discussion of roster & contract details only relevant at the time (some look stupid in hindsight) but leading to the punch line summary:
In summary: Relax.
All roads through The Plan(tm) in the end, lead to a similar destination: Acquire the next superstar players somewhere around the 2016 season. Depending on the market, we may have to wait a year or so after that point. But that's the point at which Danny will have the tools to pull the big trigger.
The main point of the article is that Danny laid out contracts and roster construction starting years ago that basically have, indeed lead up to this point, right now. If you paid attention to what he was doing back then, you could see it coming. Sorta. Obviously, as the article points out, there were a lot of optional paths along the way, but they all were leading here.
I'm guessing (based on Ainge's own comments) that getting Isaiah a year early was probably a bit of a deviation - found gold as it were - but Danny's plan seems pretty clearly robust enough to have taken that sort of variable in.
Typically GM's say they have something like a 3-5 year plan to return a team to contention. Ainge is one of the only GM's I've ever seen pull that off. He took over as GM in 2003, collected his assets, and officially turned it around in 2007 when we landed KG after a bottom-out year. Right in the 3-5 year window.
It's one of the reasons I don't judge Hinkie's tenure yet. He was just hired in May 2013. It hasn't even been 3 years and four of their most valuable assets have yet to play on the team. It would have been interesting to see if he pulled it off within the 3-5 year window, but the assets will remain as Colangelo takes over. They are still on the clock.
Ainge's second attempt started in June 2013 when he officially traded away KG and Pierce. It's coming right up on 3 years for him as well. Next couple years will be right in the Window. I think the difference between these situations is Philly didn't care at all about the short term. They are in a similar position to where the pre-KG Celtics were. It's a team that hasn't been relevant for a while - so who cares if they go through a few years of garbage. Boston, on the other hand, wanted to maintain a level of competitiveness. Coming from a team with 4 all-stars, they likely had more firepower to flip for future assets. And even though they bottomed out in 2014, there is some pressure and possibly some incentive in remaining in the middle of the pack. This could have the added benefit of making us a major player in free agency, whereas Philly's plan seems to entirely revolve around draft and trade options (like Boston in 2007). I see both as being in great position heading into this Summer. Both need some luck. Both need to make wise moves. Philly's best prospect/pick trade assets are still better than Boston's best prospect/pick trade assets, but I give Boston the edge right now simply because they are a bigger free agent threat and Crowder/Thomas are now seen as pretty substantial pieces.
Topic: I Feel Like Ainge's Entire Tenure has Lead to This Summer. (Read 14635 times)