A thank you to Danny Ainge

[tlee324]

Danny Ainge has been instrumental in the last 4 Celtics championships as a player and an executive. We know there were lots of ups and downs along the way, but in the spirit of this most recent championship, this post is a simple recognition and thank you for the positives he has done.

In the 1983-84 playoffs, he was a small contributor to the team's 15th championship, giving them 5 points and 2 assists per game in 13 minutes per game.

In 1986, however, he was a major contributor to #16, heralded as one of the greatest NBA championship teams of all time. Ainge gave them 16ppg, 5asts, 4rebs, and 3 steals per game in the playoffs, shooting 55% from the field, 87% from the line and 41% from 3pt range, playing 36 minutes per game.

For the 2008 season, as an executive, Ainge built a championship level roster making moves to obtain Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen bringing home the long awaited #17 trophy to Boston.

Ainge has also made 3 major contributions to the newest Celtics' championship in 2024: Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Brad Stevens. Ainge made the major trades of Garnett and Paul Pierce with New Jersey that resulted in obtaining draft picks who would end up being NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown and All-NBA player Jayson Tatum. Ainge also recruited Brad Stevens to Boston who after some success as the Celtics' coach, ended up replacing Ainge as the executive to help build an amazing championship roster.

Again, we know the ups and downs, but in the end, we've been able to celebrate the last 4 Celtics' championships in part due to Daniel Ray Ainge.

THANKS DANNY!!!

[Marti-mar]

That trade with the Nets could end up going down as an all timer depending upon whether this iteration of the Celtics can win multiple championships. It's already pretty lopsided, but if the C's can win 3 or so championships with the Tatum and Brown anchoring, it will be up there with the Golden State trade.

[LarryBirdsFingr]

Thank you austin ainge !

[Grahf]

When Danny got here, he talked about building a team like the Sacramento Kings (to you young'uns in here, this was actually something you wanted to be at the time he said it). As Ainge noted, it was almost impossible to get a hold of a prime Shaq or a prime Duncan, so you had to build a team that was deep, athletic, highly skilled, and played team basketball. Passing, shooting and defense and versatility at every position.

Then Kevin Garnett fell into our lap, and we still had Pierce, so we won in 2008 in the top-heavy manner.

The team we watched this evening is the team Danny imagined back when he became our GM. His vision finally blossomed tonight. The 2024 Celtics is the final validation of the philosophy he outlined all the way back in 2003.

[chrisab123]

When Danny got here, he talked about building a team like the Sacramento Kings (to you young'uns in here, this was actually something you wanted to be at the time he said it). As Ainge noted, it was almost impossible to get a hold of a prime Shaq or a prime Duncan, so you had to build a team that was deep, athletic, highly skilled, and played team basketball. Passing, shooting and defense and versatility at every position.

Then Kevin Garnett fell into our lap, and we still had Pierce, so we won in 2008 in the top-heavy manner.

The team we watched this evening is the team Danny imagined back when he became our GM. His vision finally blossomed tonight. The 2024 Celtics is the final validation of the philosophy he outlined all the way back in 2003.

I think he envisioned the end result but not the same guys. He wanted to team AD and Kyrie together which would have meant Tatum and Brown would be in New Orleans had AD agreed to come here.

[Hal14]

I'm still surprised that they never retired his number 44 jersey..between what he did as a player and as an executive in Boston.

Got us banner 17 as an exec. And played a pretty big role in getting banner 18 too (drafted Tatum, drafted Brown. Drafted Pritchard. Drafted Smart, who got us KP. Drafted Rob, who got us Jrue. Drafted Nesmith, who got us Brogdon, who got us Jrue. Also signed Al (yes he let Al go a few yrs later but Brad brought Al back and that trade to bring Al back was more likely to happen since Brad already knew Al was a fit here, from when Danny signed him)

Brad deserves a lot of credit for banner 18. But Danny played a pretty big role in this too.

[return2glory]

Well said tlee324. Danny deserves credit for sure. I remembered to thank him in one of my posts yesterday and will do it again here.
Thank you Danny. He did a lot of good things like you mentioned. Not only as a player for Boston but building a championship team in the 2008 season. Before Danny took over as Celtics GM, Celtics had some really bad teams. Then he helped rebuild this current team by getting picks that he turned into Tatum and Brown. I loved Brad as a coach in Butler and was really happy Danny got him here.

I'm sure Wyc and Steve Pagliuca thank him too for yesterday's title.

[Curmudgeon]

I think we ought to be thanking Sam Presti for giving us Horford back for Ainge's folly, Kemba Walker.

[zoyathedestroya]

Danny was the one who originally acquired the first three infinity stones then lost one. It was Brad who brought that 3rd infinity stone back then proceeded to masterfully gather the three remaining stones, the final one being Jrue freaking Holiday (this dude was a huge difference maker the entire playoffs, his stats on the Bucks be damned).

No Danny, no banner 18 most likely. Hopefully, he can attend the season opener in October as we raise it to the rafters.

Spoiler:

Sorry for the really obscure cinematic reference. It was from this little-known movie called Avengers: Infinity War. I'd explain the reference but wouldn't want to spoil it for any of you.

[tlee324]

I think we ought to be thanking Sam Presti for giving us Horford back for Ainge's folly, Kemba Walker.

As stated, it was a thank you to Ainge and focus on the positives he's done in helping towards 4 championships. If there's anyone on the board who would come here to point out the follies, you'd be at or near the top of the list, lol.

[FlatearthZorro]

Danny's my guy! Will always have a hugerespect him for who he is.

[ConstableGeneva]

Read on Twitter

“There’s a lot of guys there that deserve all of that credit. Brad, [vice president of basketball ops] Mike Zarren, Austin. Those guys deserve a ton of credit, ’cause they were there through all of it. And Wyc [Grousbeck] and Pags (Steve Pagliuca) spent a lot of money.”

“You need some luck to have it work out,” Ainge told Underdog Sports. “When we traded the No. 1 pick to get Jayson Tatum, you don’t know for sure [that it’s going to work out]. I mean, we traded the No. 1 pick and thought we were going to take Tatum with the No. 1 pick anyway, so we ended up getting our guy. But Jayson’s turned out to be a fantastic player.

“It’s been fun watching them develop,” Ainge told Shaughnessy of Tatum and Brown. “In the beginning, they had success for young kids. I know fans are impatient. We’re all impatient. Everybody wants to win one, but I was just reading how Jaylen Brown’s won more playoff games than something like eight franchises. That’s insane.

“They had a lot of playoff success initially and that was great training ground for both of them.”

[ConstableGeneva]

Read on Twitter

[phincsfan]

Thank You Danny Ainge !!!!

[LarryBirdsFingr]

LONG LIVE AUSTINNAINGEEE

[redslastlaugh]

Danny did a great job overall. Maybe he underemphasized team chemistry in terms of bringing in talented guys who could be a headache, and maybe he could come off as a little cutthroat, such as his handling of Isaiah Thomas. But overall he did a great job.

If you look at the rebuild starting with trading Paul and KG and hiring Brad, Danny’s highest draft pick in six consecutive drafts was as follows:

2013: Kelly Olynyk
2014: Marcus Smart
2015: Terry Rozier
2016: Jaylen Brown
2017: Jayson Tatum
2018: Robert Williams

that’s about as good a run in six consecutive drafts as any exec has ever had with any team in any era.

But DA gets dinged for two moves in my book:

2017 Kyrie Irving trade, look Danny just backed the wrong horse on that one.
&
2010 Eddie House trade for Nate Rob. EHouse was so valuable in 08 Finals because of the unique way Phil Jackson would defend Rondo. Maybe without Nate we don’t get there, but with Eddie we probably win that 2010 Finals rematch with LA and add another ring. This is not that common a ding on Ainge, but I’ll always believe Eddie House would have swung that series.

(The net rating stats for 2008 Finals, Eddie House was a +21.4 differential and Rajon Rondo was a -2.2 .)
https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612738/players-advanced?Season=2007-08&OpponentTeamID=1610612747

[cl2117]

Danny did a great job overall. Maybe he underemphasized team chemistry in terms of bringing in talented guys who could be a headache, and maybe he could come off as a little cutthroat, such as his handling of Isaiah Thomas. But overall he did a great job.

If you look at the rebuild starting with trading Paul and KG and hiring Brad, Danny’s highest draft pick in six consecutive drafts was as follows:

2013: Kelly Olynyk
2014: Marcus Smart
2015: Terry Rozier
2016: Jaylen Brown
2017: Jayson Tatum
2018: Robert Williams

that’s about as good a run in six consecutive drafts as any exec has ever had with any team in any era.

But DA gets dinged for two moves in my book:

2017 Kyrie Irving trade, look Danny just backed the wrong horse on that one.
&
2010 Eddie House trade for Nate Rob. EHouse was so valuable in 08 Finals because of the unique way Phil Jackson would defend Rondo. Maybe without Nate we don’t get there, but with Eddie we probably win that 2010 Finals rematch with LA and add another ring. This is not that common a ding on Ainge, but I’ll always believe Eddie House would have swung that series.

(The net rating stats for 2008 Finals, Eddie House was a +21.4 differential and Rajon Rondo was a -2.2 .)
https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612738/players-advanced?Season=2007-08&OpponentTeamID=1610612747

Great shout on the Eddie House trade. It's not one I've really thought back on before, but it is an interesting inflection point for that team. Nate was actually pretty good for us during his stretch in 2010, but even with his one dimensional skillset I think it's fair to wonder whether Eddie could have been even more impactful as a scorer.

The Perkins for Jeff Green trade also was questionable. Ainge was worried about Perk leaving for nothing and tried to get some youth on the wing, but we ended up relying on Jermaine O'Neal in the frontcourt and could have really used Perk's inside presence during the playoffs (that was the same year we tried to squeeze that last bit of usefulness out of Shaq).

Even with the Kyrie thing though, I think everything could have worked out completely differently had Hayward not gotten injured. That essentially set us on a whole new timeline that changed everything Ainge was trying to put together. It might/probably would have still ended up flaming out because Kyrie is a nutcase, but I don't think you can really blame Ainge for not foreseeing that when he hadn't really been that crazy while on the Cavs. Think that one is just a case of extremely bad luck.

Because it was towards the start of his tenure I think people often forget that Danny built the team that won in '08. So often his legacy gets talked about only in the context of the time after the Billy King trade, but Ainge built the original big 3 and was some injury bad luck away from potentially having multiple titles with that group as well.

I think he's still one of the best GM's to ever do it.

[BK_2020]

Kyrie wasn't crazy he just didn't want to resign with us.

[cl2117]

Kyrie wasn't crazy he just didn't want to resign with us.

I was referring to his Brooklyn days. Even if he did want to stay with us, we could have ended up with all the drama that ended up unfolding there, so it may have just been doomed from the start.

[GregB]

Also thank you to Danny for stepping down and letting Brad do his thing. Danny did a lot towards building this team. But Brad was the one who made the moves to build a cohesive team and was willing to risk assets that danny would not.