Kupchak versus Ainge

[campybatman]

This race for Executive Of The Year might be as close as the race for league MVP for candidates James, Bryant and Garnett. At least by the opinion of this writer, Steve Aschburner.

Agree or disagree?

In my opinion, I don't see how this is a discussion. Nearly every trade and signing by Ainge yielded a positive impact on this season's win total with the exception of Pollard. Not to mention, Ainge trusted Rondo to be the full time starter at point guard after a promising rookie year. And the acquiring from Seattle the draft rights to Davis helped to round out a solid bench. Pruitt could be a good player in time or a future trade chip. Like Pollard, he hasn't added much to the team overall. Nevertheless, he's a young chip and the team is afforded time to bring him along slowly if he's a part of the team long term. Lastly, I'm uncertain of who hires those on Rivers' coaching staff. But, kudos to Rivers and/or Ainge for hiring Thibodeau if that factors into this argument for Executive Of The Year as well.

My vote goes to Danny Ainge without hesitation.

Note: That first point is weak. He found a way to keep Kobe happy. Huh? And what the hell did Ainge do by acquiring both Ray Allen and Garnett in separate trades? I say, that trumps the Lakers acquiring Gasol via trade any day. I mean Kobe, like LeBron, still has to score like a hundred points in order for the team to win games more times than he might want to. But, yet Boston and teams in the western conference should be concern about the Lakers. Blah. No, I get what the writer's saying... But, that point isn't that valid that you can use that to begin your argument in favor of Kupchak without some Celtics fans thinking: And what of Pierce's feelings on his future as a Boston Celtic after they'd missed out on the top two players in last year's draft. Remember those rumors or rumbling in the media about Paul wondering about his future in Boston prior to Ainge getting Ray Allen. Many felt uncomfortable before all knew what would come later as help for Paul. And boy did it come...

Executive of the Year race

Here is my ranking of the leading candidates for NBA Executive of the Year (the award is voted on by front-office officials):

1. Mitch Kupchak, Lakers: Found a way to keep Kobe Bryant and make him happy, in what looked not long ago like an either-or situation.

2. Danny Ainge, Celtics: The two biggies (Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen) get all the attention, but the moves that brought some role players were critical too.

Here's where Kupchak is, whether he likes it or not: challenging Boston's Danny Ainge as the favorite for NBA Executive of the Year (see chart above). If the Celtics' boss deservedly cleared space on his bookcase for the award through the season's first half -- a 34-7 seal of approval stamped on his offseason acquisitions of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and others -- Kupchak has pulled even with about a quarter of the schedule left. In a tougher conference, with Bryant's trade demands as a loaded gun to his head, he has matched and maybe even surpassed Ainge's impressive work.

The Lakers are good to go for a deep playoff run this spring and they're set up for seasons to come with their deep, talented and young roster. By the time Boston's facelift, in a year or two, starts looking Joan Rivers-ian, Kupchak's crew figures to still be pert and lively.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/w ... index.html

[TheCelticTruth]

i disagree with acshburner and marty burns who makes a similar point. i think that danny has done more work and had more work to do than anyone else. i mean, were the lakers historically terrible last year? no im pretty sure that was us. and have the lakers been the best team in the nba from start to finish this year? no, so far its us, were not at the finish yet but so far weve been the frontrunner all along.

people joke about mchale giving away garnett, but seriously, how can anyone make that joke when you look at the deal for gasol? that trade was nothing close to any other rumored deal for gasol.

luck is part of it, but kupchak was very lucky. i think the fact that no one expected danny to do anything with the players he had, the fact that he produced two all stars in addition to pierce, found a bench when he traded away more than half his team, and then made key signings late in the season to bolster the roster without having trade assets or needlessly giving up a draft pick to make a move for a lesser player than pj or sam.

i have to say if bryan colangelo was a slam dunk for exec with his first year in toronto, danny is the same this year, and i can say that with no homerism involved. the lakers were over .500 and made the playoffs. we were under .300 and won 24 games. weve already more than doubled our win total. if that isnt the biggest turn around weve seen in recent years, or if that single offseason+season of work doesnt merit the EOY award, then i know nothing about basketball.

i attribute this to the kobe infatuation that strikes so many writers. they got lazy when MJ was around, and so they now worship every non rape move kobe makes and try to justify and legitimize his greatness. i will never take away from kobe's ability because that would be silly, but he doesnt wow me more than a KG, or LBJ, or Dwight Howard, or CP3, or Tha Big Fundamental TD. i think its wishful thinking to put him as close to MJ as people do. Kobe is impressive, but not like that.

[Jammer]

Ainge will get it because of the 40 win improvement over last season.

The Lakers were already a good team, winning 42 games last year.

Going from 24 to 67 wins is much tougher than going from 42 to say, 58 wins.

[TheCelticTruth]

btw, i was just thinking kupchak v. ainge literally, and ainge would kill him on the court

[greenkoolaid34]

Danny should get Executive of the Year hands down. This season is the climax of what he has been building here for years. He made a few mistake along the way but everyone does that, nobody's perfect. He has kept the Celtics moderately relevant for stretches by adding players like GP, Walker, Ricky, and Wally to help Pierce. (By all rights we should have won that first round series with Indiana.) He has been:
- a draft master and developed young players like this was a college program.
-He hired a solid (not great but not poor) coach that was a good PR person and bought into what he was trying to do AND STUCK WITH HIM. So many GMs would have fired a coach with the "stats" that doc had accumulated as the Celtics head man but Ainge recognized the importance of consistency and support needed at the position on this team.
- The two trades (KG and Allen) were things that other GMs could only dream about doing.
- Also EVERYBODY said that we did not have any depth on our team with the role players DA put around his stars and EVERYBODY was wrong. DA was right and we are one of the deepest teams in the league.
-Adding players like Sam I Am and PJ are the exclamation points at the end of the sentence.

DA has had one of the best years a GM could EVER HAVE. He is a lock for EOY and if by some idiotic chance he does not get it, it will be because he made his big moves "too early" which I feel dumb even saying because early is when u want to make the moves.
P.S. He took the second worst team in the league and turned it into hands down THE BEST!!!

[spf211]

I agree on the point that Boston's turn-around will be more dramatic, but there's also the reality of the deals.

To trade for Garnett, Ainge sacrificed a young 20-10 player (sorry, make that 21-12) and while Jefferson may never be league MVP, he's a clear All-Star talent at this point.

This was a tougher deal to make than offloading a career bust (Kwame Brown), a maybe future roleplayer (Crittendon), and future picks. There was essentially no risk in the move and, unlike the Celtics, did not involve their best prospect.

Because Kupchak did not give up Bynum bodes well for the move, but you have to look at it objectively and smell more of Wallace's desparation/incompetence than Mitch being shrewd.

Ainge, in effect, pulled the trigger on the Ray Allen deal to help lure Garnett to Boston -- a move that could have backfired. He retained enough assets to still get Garnett. He brought in key roleplayers and kept his last two roster spots open for months anticipating getting Cassell and PJ Brown.

Ainge took the greater risk and got the greater reward -- Kupchak found himself on the verge of a no-brainer deal and pulled the trigger.

[Jammer]

Lay off Chris Wallace.

The Memphis move came from Heisley.

It's been well reported that Heisley wanted expirings.

It's been well misreported that Wallace had something to do with it.

The circumstance in the Lakers favor were:

1) Kwame Brown and Aaron McKie were expiring

2) They ponied up $3 million cash

3) They put minimal protection on their 2008 and 2010 First Round Picks

4) Critteton, the 2007 #18 pick, is a true shooting guard in size/quickness, unlike Mike Miller or Rudy Gay, who are both really small forwards. So, whether or not Crittenton works out, he looked like a fit for Memphis as a true SG or tall PG.

5) Draft rights to Marc Gasol meant draft rights to a true center, something Memphis wanted.

Position wise, Crittenton and Marc Gasol were the two position of most need for the Grizzlies, even though it may be years (if ever) that Marc Gasol actually decides to come over and play at the scale for a second round pick (probably would only sign a 1 year deal, than want a portion of the mid-level from someone, which means Memphis will probably trade his rights eventually).

[ParticleMan]

obviously i think Ainge is EOY. Kupchak started with a legit MVP candidate on his roster. Ainge maneuvered for 4 years to be able to acquire one.

but the memphis trade, whoever oredered it, was brutally stupid. the players they got SUCK, whether or not they are a good "fit". memphis is a <30win team, they shouldn't be worried about fit, they should be worried about getting better players. if that's all you could get for gasol, then why trade him? wait for the summer and let a bidding war happen. what was the big rush? so pau pouts a bit more, who cares, it's not like memphis was winning anything this year anyway. it was a complete boneheaded move, and luckily kupchak was in the right place with the right pieces.

don't get me wrong, kupchak has done great drafting bynum and being ready (like ainge was) to cash in on a fire sale. but ainge had a lot farther to go with the C's and it required a lot more moves to get there.

[sam_I_am]

Ainge wins because not only did he get 2 all stars with some pretty mediocre assets...... he did it without the benefit of any idiotic moves by others. People can accuse McHale of a horrible trade but he had to trade Garnett and he extracted a young budding star, 3 other young talents and 2 future picks including his team's own (likely a lottery pick).

Just because the worst GM in the history of the NBA gave Gasol away for garbage doesn't make Kupchak a good GM. Kudos to him for stealing Gasol.

But whose strategy REQUIRED somebody else to win for him. Ainge's strategy of planning for top 2 pick backfired and Plan B brought us perhaps the best Celtics team since Russell. Ainge's moves work 9/10 times. Kupchak's move require Chris Wallace working as a GM and his strategy fails 99/100 times because you just can't count on giving up garbage to get a young, all-star big man.

[greenkoolaid34]

DA did give up a top prospect to get KG in Big Al but most everything else he gave up was dinner scraps esepically when those players are on a bad team like t-wolvs or the 06'/07' celtics. I loved Big Al when he was with the Celtics and still enjoying watching him from afar, but i would like to see him put up the numbers he does when he is not on a horrible team. My guess is Al's numbers would drop signifcantly. Lets face it he is no D-Howard and probably wont be one. As somone mentioned on a thread from the past if Tony Allen hadnt blown out his knee last year we might have been able to use his inflated numbers, from being on a horrible team, to get KG instead of Al. Any GM would have made the KG trade the DA made. It was a NO BRAINER. I hated DA for most of his time with the celtics but in retrospect i see why he did a lot of the things he did and look how it paid off. He truely has established himself as one of the great GM's in sports today and will receive the "bling bling" to back it up at the end of the year without doubt

[Datruth345]

ughh

the pau gasol trade is bull

Danny ftw

[MaxwellSmart]

Ainge= Man who goes to school...works hard all his life and retires a millionaire.

Kupchak= Hillbilly who buys a winning lottery ticket.

[wetsthebed]

Ainge turned the second worst team into the best. Kupchak turned a 2nd tier team into a first tier team. I think it should be Ainge pretty easily.

[chakdaddy]

Is the award for the best GM, or the luckiest? That's the question.

[francishsu]

Ainge had the much greater challenge in getting Allen and KG. If trading for one All-Star is difficult enough, how about trading for two? Sam Presti, Sonics GM, described Ainge's pursuit of Allen as "impeccable". I've never heard that word, or what it conveys, used in a similar context. Consider how Ainge must have had to work his tail off to pull off this trade. Ray Allen also stated that he was surprised to the effort Ainge put in to obtain him and that Ainge would not take no for an answer. At the same time, it was reported that Presti wanted Rondo, but Ainge rightly drew the line and they ended up settling for West. And I imagine the same went for Ratliff vs. Wally. Ainge had much more to lose (i.e. KG) if Presti refused his offer, which I believe was everything Ainge was willing to give up.

And then there was the KG trade itself of course.

As for Kupchak, I have to give him props for not trading Kobe in the offseason. Given the Kobe video interview and all the Kobe crap he had to deal with, he did not trade Kobe or Bynum. And I happily believed that the Lakers' season was lost. But I had no idea that they would get Pau Gasol handed to them on a silver platter by Chris Wallace.

In the end, I would give it to Ainge. He had a greater challenge in acquiring both greater quality and quantity of talent. And let's not forget all of the supporting veterans he had to acquire. Ainge virtually rebuilt the Celtics, while Kupchak merely added an impact player.

[Prophet_C]

It's Ainge.

A year and a half ago or so a lot of us overvalued our young players. I know I did. That being said when we talked about our "great youth" nobody really agreed and considered our youth unproven talent that we couldn't get crap for. Well that unproven crap talent along w/some picks and assorted crap we now have the roster we do today. Not bad considering the "crap" we had. I liked our young guys but I like winning more. We are the best team in the league. We were the second worst last year. There really isn't much debate.

Yes, the Lakers have a great team but I consider Kupchak lucky with the Gasol trade. Memphis were idiotic for doing that but I wonder what else was offered for Gasol. Maybe that was the best offer. When you look at the KG deal there were reportedly several quality offers from other teams on the table. I mean before the season and prior Laker fans were calling for his head, calling him cupcake because he was too scared too make a deal and the ones he did make sucked. Kobe stayed because they couldn't get anything in fair value and even if they did Kobe could veto the deal.

Not only did Ainge pull off KG and Ray, we also have signed Posey, House, Brown, Cassell which gave us a very deep bench and a very good chance to get to 17.

Congrats Danny

[SuperDeluxe]

The only things Kupchack has on Danny Ainge is that his roster has a longer window, and that he has had to endure Kobe Bryant's countless requests and issues. Other than that, Ainge should run away with the EOY award.

[freakon0mics]

I'm a Celtics fan but since this is on the Celtics board, I have to give the award to Ainge. Simply put, he acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett in a span of 3 months. Not to mention the signings of Eddie House, James Posey, PJ Brown, and Sam Cassell.

[JJHondo17]

I don't see why there would be a question, Ainge went out and made some amazing trades with some valuable assets he acquired. Mitch Cupcake had Pau Gasol Gift wrapped and handed over on a silver platter to him for some crappy assets he burdened the Lakers with.