I feel like Kobe has drafted well based on where he was picking and he hasn't made any bad trades. He's made a couple of pretty good ones. Those are the two most important aspects of what a rebuilding GM can do.JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:The entirety of his success is linked to two very lopsided trades and neither McHale nor Billy King are around to trade with anymore. The Celtics ownership group is on record as saying that they made Ainge go back and ask for more picks, twice, in that Nets trade.JonFromVA wrote:
It would certainly hurt in terms of using our POBO as a player recruiting tool, but in terms of vision, strategy, and team-building it would be an upgrade. Anyway, sounds like Utah might be where he ends up.
These opportunities to add a successful executive are few and far between, and it would be nice if DG was at least considering spending on something that could make a huge difference without hurting our cap.
But I'd argue that the record for his long term vision is a bit mixed, and that's putting it charitably. It's no secret that he was hording draft capital for AD. He didn't really have a plan B and the Celtics have been looking for a good big man since they shipped out KG. He burned through Brown and Tatum's rookie deals without adding that young big. Kyrie, Horford and Hayward walked for nothing.
His best attribute was in getting guys already on the roster to buy into signing team friendly deals, and after what happened with IT, I think that's over.
But he's not leaving the Celtics in a great spot. They're a tax team that's on the clock with Smart's contract. Their starting PG is on the wrong side of 30, has bad knees, and two years left on a max deal. His later lottery picks are meh and have limited trade value. Part of me wonders if he pulled a Morey here and left before he had to pay a small ransom to get off of Kemba's deal.
lol, I'm not going to waste my time advocating any further for Ainge; other than to point out that maybe we shouldn't be so picky and choosy until Koby Altman has shown he can construct even one 48-win team, let alone 10 of them.
Imagine if we just missed on guys like Bamba, Culver, WCJ, Sekuo, Zaire, Fultz, etc. The Kings passed on Luka for a guy they might not even match next summer. That's an entire season of painful losing just wasted.
Read the boards of other teams and how pissed they were when the Cavs landed Allen for that return.
Also, Kobe managed to assemble a roster out of the remains of the Kyrie trade, while holding onto the 8th pick, that LBJ was able to carry to the Finals. Nance is still one of the most coveted players on the roster when it comes to trade value.
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