Offseason question #10: grade Danny Ainge

babyjax13 · Post #1 » by **babyjax13** » Tue May 13, 2025 12:28 am

Time for the next offseason question: how would you rate the job Danny Ainge has done?

Prior questions
#1: should Lauri stay or go? viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2454649
#2: what position are we weakest at? viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2455126
#3: what style should we play? viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2455378
#4: who is the keeper? viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2455576
#5: your top-5 big board? viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2456314
#6: second draft viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2457144
#7: tank time-frame viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2457232
#8: Hardy's extension viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2457754
#9: 5 or Zion viewtopic.php?f=33&t=2458040

babyjax13 · Post #2 » by **babyjax13** » Tue May 13, 2025 12:56 am

I'm not mad that Ainge didn't choose to tank early, I'm mad that he didn't pick a direction at all once it was clear Lauri was as good as he is. He holds out for the exact return he wants so we miss out on value and hold players too long. He gets too cute trying too recover value from distressed assets like Collins and THT, he has pulled the plug twice at the trade deadline instead of just doing the obvious thing to start the season. He gets the big star trade right then can't execute. Honestly, I can't believe we hired him after the Hayward debacle.

After the Gobert and Mitchell trades he also got reamed on the value of periphery pieces. When he made trades they were really weird (THT, are you f***ing kidding me?; Bojan for Olynyk and Saban Lee? Why?). He's unwilling to sacrifice on value.

babyjax13 · Post #3 » by **babyjax13** » Tue May 13, 2025 1:53 am

Reset the poll to be a grade/rating instead of binary, probably more interesting this way.

bkohler · Post #4 » by **bkohler** » Tue May 13, 2025 2:42 am

I think he’s good and willing to do what needs to be done for the most part. It’s hard to judge today honestly, had the pick hit I’d give him a 9-10.

SoCalJazzFan · Post #5 » by **SoCalJazzFan** » Tue May 13, 2025 5:44 am

I gave him a 9. He wasn't decisive enough for the Wemby sweepstakes and should have realized that controlling his own pick was more important than getting the most value of a few players.

I think that he was masterful this year. We'll see if he can pull off some favorable trades post lottery/preseason. I think that the Jazz see the big picture and are committed to getting the best talent through the draft, notwithstanding the lottery kicking us in the teeth, and will tank again next year to get that guy.

dr0welf · Post #6 » by **dr0welf** » Tue May 13, 2025 1:48 pm

I think Danny Ainge has done a fantastic job of tearing this house down past the floor boards. But I don't think he really knows what it is going to look like. We should have tanked Wemby's years and we didn't, We failed at tanking for 2 years before we did it right this year. So it feels like we have been tanking for 3 years now with no end in sight. I feel Danny is just going through the motions at this point and has no Heart in the game. He is not creating opportunity but taking the opportunity when it presents itself. I give Danny a mediocre 5

Post #7 » by **Inigo Montoya** » Tue May 13, 2025 2:43 pm

He made market-breaking trades on Gobert and Mitchell. He drafted decently well all things considered (not saying he hit home-runs and didn't have misses but I can't think of a player he missed on who would have made a real difference for the Jazz), found some good value in a terrible draft (Collier, Flip). He didn't move some players soon enough or managed to increase their value and trade them but that would also mean the offers for them weren't that great to begin with. Could he have moved Markkanen earlier? Sure, but at least when his name was on the block I didn't really like the offers that were floating around.

I think there is also some recency bias at work right now. As bkohler said, if the lottery went the Jazz's way, suddenly his score and opinions of him would be way higher. As far as I'm concerned, he did what he should have done this season, which was to tank, and the tank was executed masterfully. He did all he could and the lottery just didn't go our way. My biggest criticism of him is that he should have tanked from the get go on the Wemby draft and I think that was the intent, but Hardy surprised everyone by managing to pull that ill-fitting roster together and overachieved. Last season was such a terrible draft that I was relieved the Jazz didn't get the #1 pick so I have no issues with how that season turned out. I gave him a 7, and then revised it to an 8.

bkohler · Post #8 » by **bkohler** » Tue May 13, 2025 4:01 pm

An underrated part of this equation is how much the landscape moved underneath the Jazz when the new CBA was put in place mid-rebuild. Under the old CBA, it would have been far easier to move someone like Lauri or Sexton for value, but the new salary matching rules have made it a lot harder for some teams who would have been willing to take him under the old CBA.

Should they have foreseen some of this? Sure, but the realities of how other teams reacted to the CBA was hard to nail down until it was actually happening.