If the Celtics win the champ this year, does Danny Ainge deserve the most credit?

[Curmudgeon]

Ainge wasn't the only 1 who passed on Giannis. I started at 2014 because it was the summer after the Pierce/KG trade.
Getting a good role player with the 27th pick is a home run in any case. If it was an obvious pick, why wasn't he taken by any of the 10 teams before the Celtics?

I've had this discussion before. No GM who passed on Giannis still has an NBA job, except Ainge and Dennis Lindsay, the man he just replaced in Utah. And Lindsay redeemed himself somewhat by getting Gobert late in the first round.

Ainge's decision in 2013 was criminal. The team was rebuilding-- years away from contention-- and needed players with high upside. Instead, he took a guy with a low ceiling. In fact, Ainge said at the time that Olynyk was a "complementary player." So he wanted to complement Brandon Bass, Chris Humphries and Joel Anthony?

[Jadoogar]

Ainge wasn't the only 1 who passed on Giannis. I started at 2014 because it was the summer after the Pierce/KG trade.
Getting a good role player with the 27th pick is a home run in any case. If it was an obvious pick, why wasn't he taken by any of the 10 teams before the Celtics?

I've had this discussion before. No GM who passed on Giannis still has an NBA job, except Ainge and Dennis Lindsay, the man he just replaced in Utah. And Lindsay redeemed himself somewhat by getting Gobert late in the first round.

Ainge's decision in 2013 was criminal. The team was rebuilding-- years away from contention-- and needed players with high upside. Instead, he took a guy with a low ceiling. In fact, Ainge said at the time that Olynyk was a "complementary player." So he wanted to complement Brandon Bass, Chris Humphries and Joel Anthony?

I think that's being extremely harsh. This was one of the worst drafts in recent memory. The best players in this draft were selected 15, 27 and 9th. Only 2 players in the top 10 amounted to anything. Only 1 of the top 10 even made an allstar game and it was a very weak allstar season (Oladipo).

You don't think he made up this mistake by selecting Jaylen Brown (i remember a lot people wanted Josh Jackson at that spot) or the trade for Tatum (Fultz was the consensus #1 pick)?

[slicedbread2]

Ainge wasn't the only 1 who passed on Giannis. I started at 2014 because it was the summer after the Pierce/KG trade.
Getting a good role player with the 27th pick is a home run in any case. If it was an obvious pick, why wasn't he taken by any of the 10 teams before the Celtics?

I've had this discussion before. No GM who passed on Giannis still has an NBA job, except Ainge and Dennis Lindsay, the man he just replaced in Utah. And Lindsay redeemed himself somewhat by getting Gobert late in the first round.

Ainge's decision in 2013 was criminal. The team was rebuilding-- years away from contention-- and needed players with high upside. Instead, he took a guy with a low ceiling. In fact, Ainge said at the time that Olynyk was a "complementary player." So he wanted to complement Brandon Bass, Chris Humphries and Joel Anthony?

I think that's being extremely harsh. This was one of the worst drafts in recent memory. The best players in this draft were selected 15, 27 and 9th. Only 2 players in the top 10 amounted to anything. Only 1 of the top 10 even made an allstar game and it was a very weak allstar season (Oladipo).

You don't think he made up this mistake by selecting Jaylen Brown (i remember a lot people wanted Josh Jackson at that spot) or the trade for Tatum (Fultz was the consensus #1 pick)?

Josh Jackson was in the same draft as Tatum.

Jaylen Brown was the 3rd and he's been pretty solid given how worse some of the other picks were(The Suns got 2 busts in Bender and Chriss which really stung). Funny tidbit: Brown and Shareef Abdur-Rahim are from Marietta GA, went to the same high school, college and got drafted 3rd overall 20 years apart(1996 and 2016 3rd overall from California, Berkeley).

[TheGOATWill]

did Ainge log minutes against Durant and Giannis?

[Spin Move]

I mean Tatum probably deserves the most credit, followed by brown, Smart, Horford and Williams. If we are only talking non basketball players the roster is competive becuase of the players danny acquired though certainly Brad should be credited with Aquiring Horford and Thies (and maybe blamed for overpaying for White). Brad should also get some player development credit for alot of the young guys. Ime deserves plenty of credit as well for getting them to buy into his system. It is a team cigar.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Give ainge the GM or executive of the year award and watch the world burn I say.

[BK_2020]

Ainge wasn't the only 1 who passed on Giannis. I started at 2014 because it was the summer after the Pierce/KG trade.
Getting a good role player with the 27th pick is a home run in any case. If it was an obvious pick, why wasn't he taken by any of the 10 teams before the Celtics?

I've had this discussion before. No GM who passed on Giannis still has an NBA job, except Ainge and Dennis Lindsay,

Flip Saunders died in 2015. I think that had a more immediate impact on him not having an NBA job than passing on Giannis.

[Jadoogar]

did Ainge log minutes against Durant and Giannis?

Strange argument. Never give any front office or coaching staff credit for team building or development?

[Blaze4G]

You're not beating the heat guy. Boston barely beat a bucks team that was missing an all-star who is their second best player.

Incredible


Never seen such a delusional fan base

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using RealGM mobile app

seem like the only delusional one is you.

[King4Day]

Ainge and Billy King equally.

[Jabroni Lames]

I mean, this is a silly question. It takes years to see the result of a a rebuild. Ainge brought in every key piece of this team, except Derrick White and Udoka. Of course he deserves massive credit for building this thing over many years and signing them all to reasonable contracts, relative to production.

Even if they made the Finals 3 years from now, he would still deserve huge credit. Tatum is still only 23 (lol, RealGM meme came true). The foundation Ainge built is actually way ahead of schedule, so he deserves even more credit.

[Bergmaniac]

Billy King deserves the most credit for making the dumbest deal in NBA history.

[Eyeamok]

Danny gets credit for steeping out of the way of progress.

[TheMartian]

You're not beating the heat guy. Boston barely beat a bucks team that was missing an all-star who is their second best player.

Incredible


Never seen such a delusional fan base

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using RealGM mobile app

Just want to give a quick shoutout to my boy Ziggie here. Where you at, kiddo?

[Ballerhogger]

No Brad and HC does . They got pg at the deadline in white . They didn’t blow up the team when they had rough start .

[JonFromVA]

Does anyone give Chris Grant the most credit for tanking, managing assets, dand rafting the players that David Griffin would build around to win Cleveland's only championship? Heck, he can even be credited for back-channeling LeBron's return (scheduling Illgauskas's jersey retirement ceremony was the most obvious example).

We'll never know if Ainge would have cracked the code on this team or how many times he'd need to re-work the roster to get them to the finals. All we know is they were .500 and falling apart when he last held the keys.

But it does take multiple talents from a GM and his staff to get the most out of a team and Ainge stepping aside so the team could get a new voice on the floor and Brad could fix the chemistry/construction was clearly key as was just having patience with young players and a new coach.

No decision was perhaps more key than embracing Smart and a defensive identity.