Fire Ainge: Thanks Danny, but it's time to go

[BK_2020]

Romeo is a pick that Danny got for literally nothing.
Nesmith's value was at the lowest in a market that saw Aaron Gordon for a prospect and a first. Trading Nesmith for the sake of trading would've been pretty idiotic.
Not saying we can't do better than Danny but your reasoning is almost completely flawed.

I don't think anyone has questioned Danny's ability to stockpile mid- to late first-round picks. But my guess is that Mr. Coach Indiana pressed for Mr. Basketball Indiana and the front office got talked into it.

Langford is a typical Danny Ainge pick, a lengthy athletic wing with high RSCI ranking. He was also pretty much the best prospect left, unless you are in the Sekou as future star camp.

[cloverleaf]

Romeo is a pick that Danny got for literally nothing.
Nesmith's value was at the lowest in a market that saw Aaron Gordon for a prospect and a first. Trading Nesmith for the sake of trading would've been pretty idiotic.
Not saying we can't do better than Danny but your reasoning is almost completely flawed.

I don't think anyone has questioned Danny's ability to stockpile mid- to late first-round picks. But my guess is that Mr. Coach Indiana pressed for Mr. Basketball Indiana and the front office got talked into it.

Langford is a typical Danny Ainge pick, a lengthy athletic wing with high RSCI ranking. He was also pretty much the best prospect left, unless you are in the Sekou as future star camp.

Danny isn't nearly as devoted to lengthy and athletic in his picks as some GMs--and as some on this board would like him to be.

[BK_2020]

You have to distinguish DA's picks in the top 15 vs. 20+. Athletic guys who also have basketball skills don't last until where Grant, Carsen, PP, etc. are picked.

[JediMasterRevan]

I personally had:
Keldon Johnson
NAW
Bitadze
Brandon Clarke all well ahead of Romeo on my preference list at the time. I remember yelling at the TV in shock that team drafted Romeo and anxiously awaited the inevitable trade that was to be announced later in the round. Only the deal never came.

[JediMasterRevan]

I don't think anyone has questioned Danny's ability to stockpile mid- to late first-round picks. But my guess is that Mr. Coach Indiana pressed for Mr. Basketball Indiana and the front office got talked into it.

Langford is a typical Danny Ainge pick, a lengthy athletic wing with high RSCI ranking. He was also pretty much the best prospect left, unless you are in the Sekou as future star camp.

Danny isn't nearly as devoted to lengthy and athletic in his picks as some GMs--and as some on this board would like him to be.

Edwards
Waters
Grant Williams

Just the last 2 years proves your point.

[scottyno]

Fire Danny

Romeo - 1 dimensional player at best, terrible pick
Nesmith - jury out but looks BAAAAAAAAD, especially with the guys taken after him looking good
Edwards - seriously?
Grant Williams - Undersized, unathletic, short armed, excels at nothing
Break up TPE to get Fournier (I know he has missed a lot of games, but when has Brad ever been able to incorporate a player with a set of skills that does not fit his system) If Evan doesn't resign just broke up the best opportunity to add a legit player in the offseason.
Traded away pick 30 for nothing, turned out to be a better player than pick 14 (which is what should have been traded), who most people agreed would happen.

Drug his feet on the hayward sign and trade and lost out on having contracts/players that he could have traded at deadline if wanted

Signed Teague just to pay to drop him a few months later.


Then fire the medical staff

Fire him because he MAY (too early to say by far) have missed on 2 mid 1sts a late 1st and a 2nd and because the guy he traded almost nothing to get who filled a perfect need on the team got covid? Oh and because he signed a backup point guard for the minimum who didn't work out.

Pretty sure you could make a similar post for every gm in the league, fire them all.

Fire him for terrible asset management over the past multiple years.

Romeo was a bad pick always
Nesmith should have been shopped and traded
Fournier, IF, IF , IFFFFF he resigns then it is in theory a good trade.

You don't want to wait until the young guys have even had an actual healthy preseason to decide if they were good picks or not? Especially when both have shown flashes, but inconsistency which is exactly what you'd expect from young guys without practice time getting inconsistent on court time.

[djFan71]

You have to distinguish DA's picks in the top 15 vs. 20+. Athletic guys who also have basketball skills don't last until where Grant, Carsen, PP, etc. are picked.

Raw athletic guys that are a gamble do: Claxton, Siakam, Paul Reed, etc, types. Danny prefers to go with undervalued short/old/etc guys with good fundamentals at those later picks. I'd prefer to take a huge swing and whiff a bunch but get a home run every now and then. Danny's way pays off in terms off cheap, low level bench production for 4 years, but doesn't have the upside of the longshot guys. Obviously, it's not 100% either way, Timelord is a good counter-example. Pritchard seems to fit the mold of short, older player taken late, but he actually has high upside as well.

[Fencer reregistered]

Is drafting Nesmith still a firing offense?

[JediMasterRevan]

Is drafting Nesmith still a firing offense?

No


Romeo
Grant
Yabuselle
Waters
Zizic
Not trading hayward
Signing teague
Trading bane
Losing horford
Losing kyrie
Signing kemba
Edwards

Those are all still reasons.

[scottyno]

Is drafting Nesmith still a firing offense?

No


Romeo
Grant
Yabuselle
Waters
Zizic
Not trading hayward
Signing teague
Trading bane
Losing horford
Losing kyrie
Signing kemba
Edwards

Those are all still reasons.

When your list includes drafting 2nd rounders, late firsts in terrible drafts, guys that were signed for the vet minimum,and guys leaving for contracts that no one wanted the Cs to pay anyway it's kind of hard to take seriously as a list of reasons to fire a guy that's been the GM of one of the best teams of the last 20 years.

[Fencer reregistered]

Is drafting Nesmith still a firing offense?

No


Romeo
Grant
Yabuselle
Waters
Zizic
Not trading hayward
Signing teague
Trading bane
Losing horford
Losing kyrie
Signing kemba
Edwards

Those are all still reasons.

When your list includes drafting 2nd rounders, late firsts in terrible drafts, guys that were signed for the vet minimum,and guys leaving for contracts that no one wanted the Cs to pay anyway it's kind of hard to take seriously as a list of reasons to fire a guy that's been the GM of one of the best teams of the last 20 years.

And who drafted Tatum, Brown, Smart, Time Lord, Nesmith, Pritchard ...

[JediMasterRevan]

No


Romeo
Grant
Yabuselle
Waters
Zizic
Not trading hayward
Signing teague
Trading bane
Losing horford
Losing kyrie
Signing kemba
Edwards

Those are all still reasons.

When your list includes drafting 2nd rounders, late firsts in terrible drafts, guys that were signed for the vet minimum,and guys leaving for contracts that no one wanted the Cs to pay anyway it's kind of hard to take seriously as a list of reasons to fire a guy that's been the GM of one of the best teams of the last 20 years.

And who drafted Tatum, Brown, Smart, Time Lord, Nesmith, Pritchard ...

Danny did for sure. Easier to hit top of draft. I dont remember if when smrt was drafted if that was conensus pick or not.

Nesmith was
Timelord was slated higher and fell.

Pritchard pick i hated but now love.



He still picked grant ahead of much better player who were consensus above him
Same with zizic, yabuselle anf many more.

He has made about 50/50 good picks and bad picks


And made some disgusting choices in free agemcy amd trades

[ParticleMan]

^^ 50/50 on picks is actually pretty damn good for a GM. most GMs are not that high. i disagree it's easier to pick higher picks; there's a lot more pressure to get it right. i love that ainge hit big-time on both tatum and brown, and to a lesser extent on smart; blowing high lotto picks is franchise crippling. if you think it's so easy, look at the sixers, who had high picks for years and it took them a decade to finally hit on embiid and simmons... and they still haven't actually won anything.

it's easy to criticize GMs for bad picks. every GM makes them. even Red made them. i wish our GM was the first and only perfect GM in the history of the NBA but that's a bit unrealistic.

[DarkAzcura]

^^ 50/50 on picks is actually pretty damn good for a GM. most GMs are not that high. i disagree it's easier to pick higher picks; there's a lot more pressure to get it right. i love that ainge hit big-time on both tatum and brown, and to a lesser extent on smart; blowing high lotto picks is franchise crippling. if you think it's so easy, look at the sixers, who had high picks for years and it took them a decade to finally hit on embiid and simmons... and they still haven't actually won anything.

it's easy to criticize GMs for bad picks. every GM makes them. even Red made them. i wish our GM was the first and only perfect GM in the history of the NBA but that's a bit unrealistic.

25% is actually good. The draft is a complete crap shoot.

[Bill Bradley]

I don’t see how people can criticize Ainge for his drafting. To me it’s been clear that the biggest problem has been Brad playing the tryhards over the clearly more talented players. He eventually figures it out after way too long.

Ainge has had some misses like any GM but he’s drafted almost the entire rotation of a team that could well contend in a year, or even this year if they get healthy and clicking.

Smart
Pritchard
Jaylen
Tatum
Nesmith
Timelord

All looking like good to great picks.

[Fencer reregistered]

^^ 50/50 on picks is actually pretty damn good for a GM. most GMs are not that high. i disagree it's easier to pick higher picks; there's a lot more pressure to get it right. i love that ainge hit big-time on both tatum and brown, and to a lesser extent on smart; blowing high lotto picks is franchise crippling. if you think it's so easy, look at the sixers, who had high picks for years and it took them a decade to finally hit on embiid and simmons... and they still haven't actually won anything.

it's easy to criticize GMs for bad picks. every GM makes them. even Red made them. i wish our GM was the first and only perfect GM in the history of the NBA but that's a bit unrealistic.

If, as is plausible but not certain, the Sixers make it deeper into the postseason than we do, it will be their first time doing so since Iverson led them to the FInals. (They did lose more admirably than we did in 2019, but still in the same round.)

[scottyno]

Danny did for sure. Easier to hit top of draft. I dont remember if when smrt was drafted if that was conensus pick or not.

Nesmith was
Timelord was slated higher and fell.

Pritchard pick i hated but now love.



He still picked grant ahead of much better player who were consensus above him
Same with zizic, yabuselle anf many more.

He has made about 50/50 good picks and bad picks


And made some disgusting choices in free agemcy amd trades

It's really impressive to try and minimize hitting on all his top picks especially when the general consensus at the time was he screwed all of them up. The actual easy thing to do would have been just take Fultz 1 because he was the consensus best player and you have the #1 pick so if it's wrong well then who can blame you any GM would have done the same. Also pretty impressive to not give him much credit for picking a guy that fell when every other gm could have done the same thing and didn't. Though you also don't seem to understand draft pick expectations if you think he's only about 50-50 so that isn't too surprising.

Would also love to know what these disgusting trades that you think he's made are.

[cloverleaf]

The Globies have Danny in their crosshairs:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/14/sports/airing-some-celtics-grievances-danny-ainge-other-thoughts/

https://www.celticsblog.com/2021/5/14/22436867/gary-washburn-time-for-new-voices-in-celtics-front-office-boston-nba

While I agree with Gary that the nepotism of Austin Ainge as part of the brain-trust echo chamber doesn't seem great, it is in keeping with the lead owner Wyc being there in partnership with his father because of the money his father made (from the early days of cable TV). What I hadn't realized is that there is another apparent, prominent case of nepotism on their staff:

Adam Lewin - College Scouting Manager
Dave Lewin - Director o[f] Player Personnel
https://www.nba.com/celtics/contact/front-office

I think they are a couple of geek brothers from Wayland?

[GoGreen]

Washburn has been going at the front office for a while now, and I love it.

[ddb]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet, but I think it's safe to say that Kyrie leaving Boston for BK in free agency has really set the Celtics back considerably. So what I wanted to bring up is, what type of research (if any) by the C's front office was done on Kyrie before trading for him? The reason I bring this up is because the more we learn about Kyrie, the more it becomes evident that the dude has some issues. I don't know enough about his issues to label him, but it's as clear as a summer day that Kyrie has "things" he's dealing with.....unstable to say the least.
I'm not a huge woulda coulda shoulda kind of guy, but I can't help but think about what-if Danny used those trade assets for another All-Star player? Or Didn't make a trade at all? It's a little concerning that Danny went in strong for a guy like Kyrie that completely backfired and blew up in the Celtics face. There was 1 good season with Kyrie (before he was injured), and then the 2nd season was a lost season as the entire time he seemed checked out despite saying he wanted to stay long-term. Kyrie is a fraud...Or perhaps I ought to be more sensitive to the fact that he seems to have problems....I guess I just wish Danny and the front office caught this, or knew about this. and if they did, why did they still go for it?