2006 Draft

[LongTimeFan]

I think at this point the 2006 draft looks extremely good for us.

First we had a very bad contractual situation and we basically used our low pick to alleviate the dead wood. That would have been OK.

The second aspect of our draft is the new players we got, the future talent we harvested. I recall after we gave up our low pick, we used a future mid-round first and some chump change to get the #21 and the #49 pick.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Ef ... 10%20Games

The above link ranks the sophmores in terms of overall efficiency in the last ten games. Both Powe (6th) and Rondo (8th) are now performing in the top ten.

So basically in 2006 we got a lot of salary dead wood moved, and two of the top ten players for what the seventh pick, a future first and some change. This result indicates to me that DA was still improving his drafting skills as of 2006. Any one of the three would have been a good draft for most GM's. We got two top ten players and cleared some wood for a big future deal.

Very, very nice.

[Truthiracy]

Danny Ainge is a genius, I supported him since day 1, lots of crow eating taking place these days

I really don't understand how Powe slipped to 49, a 20-10 guy in the Pac-10, why did Denver trade him?

Rondo at 21 was a straight steal...I love how the Knicks took Renaldo Balkman right before Rondo, followed by Isiah saying the Celtics wouldn't be nearly as good without Rondo at the point.

I could care less about the Brandon Roys and Randy Foyes of the world right now.

[Celts17Pride]

I could care less about the Brandon Roys and Randy Foyes of the world right now.

That was a very important deal in order to get KG. Danny knew what he was doing getting Ratliff's expiring deal. While everyone screamed and made jokes about Ainge, he just was executing his plan.

Ainge didn't know he was getting KG but he knew he could use Ratliff's expiring contract to add talent. First he tinkered around with Iverson but ultimately ended up with KG. Good deal. Ainge has vision.

[JiriMania]

I think at this point the 2006 draft looks extremely good for us.

First we had a very bad contractual situation and we basically used our low pick to alleviate the dead wood. That would have been OK.

The second aspect of our draft is the new players we got, the future talent we harvested. I recall after we gave up our low pick, we used a future mid-round first and some chump change to get the #21 and the #49 pick.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Ef ... 10%20Games

The above link ranks the sophmores in terms of overall efficiency in the last ten games. Both Powe (6th) and Rondo (8th) are now performing in the top ten.

So basically in 2006 we got a lot of salary dead wood moved, and two of the top ten players for what the seventh pick, a future first and some change. This result indicates to me that DA was still improving his drafting skills as of 2006. Any one of the three would have been a good draft for most GM's. We got two top ten players and cleared some wood for a big future deal.

Very, very nice.

I totally agree this draft was extremely important for the Celtics and set it up for last summers events. Had we held onto Raef we'd be mared in mediocracy waiting and wishing on a sign and trade for Gilbert "What do you mean Pass?" Arenas. A great player but not the team changer that one Kevin Garnett is.

My only amendment would be to the part where you keep saying we got two top ten players. In this reference, yes we did, but the stats are just for ten games.

I think its FAR MORE impressive if you look at the whole season and see Rondo is 4th overall in efficency, and Leon Powe is 14th in efficency, nothing to scoff at. Both are ranked higher than the number 1 overall pick
(Bargnani is 15th).

Well i agree the last team games have been great, but look at the full body of work and the numbers are just as impressive.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Ef ... ll%20Teams

[Tricky Ricky]

-= original quote snipped =-



That was a very important deal in order to get KG. Danny knew what he was doing getting Ratliff's expiring deal. While everyone screamed and made jokes about Ainge, he just was executing his plan.

Ainge didn't know he was getting KG but he knew he could use Ratliff's expiring contract to add talent. First he tinkered around with Iverson but ultimately ended up with KG. Good deal. Ainge has vision.

I sort of think he got lucky with KG being available and I still think he thought Telfair was going to be a big time player in this league, however everything worked out in the end and thats why Ive loved Ainge since day 1

[Celts17Pride]

-= original quote snipped =-



I sort of think he got lucky with KG being available and I still think he thought Telfair was going to be a big time player in this league, however everything worked out in the end and thats why Ive loved Ainge since day 1

Don't be fooled. The move was made to get rid of Raef LaFrentz and get Ratliff's expiring deal. It cost him a #7 pick.

Donnie Walsh is going to do the same thing with Zach Randolph and the Knicks 1st round pick especially if it's in the 4-7 range.

[chakdaddy]

I really think you could get Ratliff's contract without giving up Brandon Roy...


You know the easy way to turn Raef's contract into Ratliff's? Wait one year.

Everything worked out nicely obviously, but I think we're giving way too much credit to the Telfair deal.

[Celts17Pride]

You know the easy way to turn Raef's contract into Ratliff's? Wait one year.

Ainge might not had a year to wait.

[Rocky5000]

I hate second guessing the past, and revisionist history...Really there are a lot of ways to make things look good or bad...Perhaps we could have had CP3 in the year before, and then Brandon Roy at SG, teaming up with AL, and Yi/Thorton if Ainge had made different moves...

[LongTimeFan]

Jiri:

Your right. I should have looked at the entire year.

The thing with Powe is that he didn't play early on, so I picked a more recent sample. Baby got Powe's minutes early in the season.

The best measure we have for Rondo is the entire season. The best measure we have for Powe is production per minute played. Like Jeffersen coming up the number is huge. So I thought highlighting that Powe has the best efficiency per 48 minutes for his draft class was too much.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Ef ... ll%20Teams

Powe is 27th for the entire NBA, and 5 of the guys above him hardly played at all. I thought 14th for his entire class substantially underated his current value.

Either way we got two very good players.

[DelMonte West]

I hate second guessing the past, and revisionist history...Really there are a lot of ways to make things look good or bad...Perhaps we could have had CP3 in the year before, and then Brandon Roy at SG, teaming up with AL, and Yi/Thorton if Ainge had made different moves...

I'm not sure I understand your logic here...was the above supposed to be an ironic take on "revisionist history", implying we could have gotten Player X if Danny had taken Option Y? If you're criticizing others for spinning what you perceive as Danny's luck, only to put out a fantasy league of young players we likely never had a shot of getting (Chris Paul's out of the equation entirely; Pierce would have never reported to Portland for the deal to go through) it comes off as hypocritical.

If that isn't the way you meant your post to come off as, my bad. It's just hard to tell with the written vs. the spoken word.

[UGA Hayes]

Whats funny is that the draft is probably going to be something of a footnote in Celtics History when in reality, that Draft was insanely consequential in what has happened to the Celtics.