Jazz Hire Danny Ainge To Oversee Basketball Operations

[RealGM Wiretap]

The Utah Jazz have hired Danny Ainge to oversee basketball operations while also naming him alternate governor and CEO of Jazz Basketball and the Smith Entertainment Group.

Ainge will work closely with Utah general manager Justin Zanik.

"Rarely do you get an opportunity to come into a franchise that is this close to being a special team," Ainge told ESPN. "It's a very unique opportunity for all of those reasons."

Ainge stepped down as president of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics in June.

Via Adrian Wojnarowski, Tim MacMahon/ESPN

[donemilio21]

[cfour6]

Out of all the teams to join.

[North_of_Border]

I was expecting him to go to the Potland Blazers, but Utah pretty much gave him total control of the franchise, plus im sure one of the top salaries in the league. I dont think other teams give him this deal. Utah though just "had to", because no way he goes there otherwise. They made him an offer he just cant refuse. No matter how much his gut tells him to think it through first.

[McBubbles]

I read "oversee" as "oversea" and got very confused. I thought "damn is the struggle that bad?"

[FrodoFraggins]

so much for the BS retirement reason for leaving the Celtics lol.

[Lee in Oregon]

Does this mean D.Mitchell is headed to Boston for Smart and some picks?

[asuran]

Given his track record, not sure what this will accomplish tho.

[ShazamDaShiznt]

You don't need to pay someone money to sit on your assets and do nothing.

Ainge is the worst kind of guy for a team that needs to take the final step to win a title. Ainge has failed Celtics numerous times when they needed to make a few moves to repeat for a championship title. Plus teams don't wanna do business with Ainge, it's a fact, he asks for too much, then teams start demanding more from Ainge also, like when they had draft picks and all star players like Butler or George were being shipped.

So we're about to see bunch of fake trade rumors involving the Jazz next year.

[objectivefan]

You don't need to pay someone money to sit on your assets and do nothing.

Ainge is the worst kind of guy for a team that needs to take the final step to win a title. Ainge has failed Celtics numerous times when they needed to make a few moves to repeat for a championship title. Plus teams don't wanna do business with Ainge, it's a fact, he asks for too much, then teams start demanding more from Ainge also, like when they had draft picks and all star players like Butler or George were being shipped.

So we're about to see bunch of fake trade rumors involving the Jazz next year.

Ainge wants you to throw in some 1st round picks and your best player to take his garbage off his hands.

[objectivefan]

You don't need to pay someone money to sit on your assets and do nothing.

Ainge is the worst kind of guy for a team that needs to take the final step to win a title. Ainge has failed Celtics numerous times when they needed to make a few moves to repeat for a championship title. Plus teams don't wanna do business with Ainge, it's a fact, he asks for too much, then teams start demanding more from Ainge also, like when they had draft picks and all star players like Butler or George were being shipped.

So we're about to see bunch of fake trade rumors involving the Jazz next year.

Ainge wants you to throw in some 1st round picks and your best player to take his garbage off his hands.

[Theagreement]

I was expecting him to go to the Potland Blazers, but Utah pretty much gave him total control of the franchise, plus im sure one of the top salaries in the league. I dont think other teams give him this deal. Utah though just "had to", because no way he goes there otherwise. They made him an offer he just cant refuse. No matter how much his gut tells him to think it through first.

Danny Ainge lives in Utah and the Jazz are putting up numbers that are on par with the best offensive teams of all time. And with the fourth best defense in the game. You don’t have to like Utah, but those boys are balling out and might be best in league. So I don’t think Ainge had to think too hard about a truck load of money, working from his preferred home, running what might be the best team in the league. SMH you make Utah sound like the Pelicans, lol.

[puja21]

Given his track record, not sure what this will accomplish tho.

RE: "track record"
Tell me-- who besides Pop/Buford has been better as an exec in the last 15 years?

Winning
After turning what was supposed to be a 2 year window into a 6 year run: Ainge, Doc, KG, Pierce, Rondo (and Allen for all but 1 series), won 11 playoff series in 16 attempts (almost 70%) and won 56 playoff games to 43 losses (.570). They got a ring, a game 7 finals loss in the waning moments, and a 3rd trip to the conference finals.

Later with Stevens, Ainge teams went to the playoffs for 7 straight seasons including 3 conference finals in 4 years.

Free agency
For years the criticism was that he/Boston can't land max free agents... Until Ainge outbid rivals to land two (Horford and of course Hayward from these Jazz)

Draft
Ainge's few high lottery picks were elite compared to his peers in those drafts; he chose Tatum and Brown despite neither being touted locks for their slots AND he saddled Philly with Fultz. Rondo is about as good as you can get with a late first round pick.

Trades
And of course "Trader Danny" famously won probably 75%+ of his trades in Boston -- to the point it became a criticism. "No one will trade with Ainge because he 'always wants to win the deal' "
e.g.
-KG/Pierce/Terry to Brooklyn of course
-IT2 from Phoenix for Tayshayn Prince and Marcus Thornton
-Ray Allen and Big Baby from Seattle for Jeff Green, the awful Wally max contract and Delonte West
-KG for Big Al and pieces that became nothing
-Getting Kyrie ultimately not a good outcome, but obviously they added a max salary slot who scored a ton of points in 2 years for a winning team vs. IT2 was never heard from again

All the small trades over the years:
-Dumped Marquis Daniels' injured neck on Sacramento and got a pick back
-Swapped the last 40 games of Eddie house's career into several seasons of Nate Robinson
-Perkins for Jeff Green not a slam dunk in eye test or chemistry, but Boston dominated the player-win-shares going forward
-Big Baby for Brandon Bass; Bass played in 300+ games for BOS averaging double figure scoring vs. Big Baby missed 21 and then 50 games due to injury with Orlando before getting traded to LAC where he averaged 4 points. out of the league before he turned 30.
-Courtney Lee became a regular rotation player for 2 years in exchange for 4 guys all playing <10 mpg
-Got Jordan Crawford for Barbosa who was injured for the year already -- Crawford started 34/39 games playing >30mpg
-Olynyk draft day trade a small win
^there are dozens of examples of things like this.


If you're going to say he has a bad track record, who has a good one?

[Slim Charless]

Given his track record, not sure what this will accomplish tho.

RE: "track record"
Tell me-- who besides Pop/Buford has been better as an exec in the last 15 years?

Winning
After turning what was supposed to be a 2 year window into a 6 year run: Ainge, Doc, KG, Pierce, Rondo (and Allen for all but 1 series), won 11 playoff series in 16 attempts (almost 70%) and won 56 playoff games to 43 losses (.570). They got a ring, a game 7 finals loss in the waning moments, and a 3rd trip to the conference finals.

Later with Stevens, Ainge teams went to the playoffs for 7 straight seasons including 3 conference finals in 4 years.

Free agency
For years the criticism was that he/Boston can't land max free agents... Until Ainge outbid rivals to land two (Horford and of course Hayward from these Jazz)

Draft
Ainge's few high lottery picks were elite compared to his peers in those drafts; he chose Tatum and Brown despite neither being touted locks for their slots AND he saddled Philly with Fultz. Rondo is about as good as you can get with a late first round pick.

Trades
And of course "Trader Danny" famously won probably 75%+ of his trades in Boston -- to the point it became a criticism. "No one will trade with Ainge because he 'always wants to win the deal' "
e.g.
-KG/Pierce/Terry to Brooklyn of course
-IT2 from Phoenix for Tayshayn Prince and Marcus Thornton
-Ray Allen and Big Baby from Seattle for Jeff Green, the awful Wally max contract and Delonte West
-KG for Big Al and pieces that became nothing
-Getting Kyrie ultimately not a good outcome, but obviously they added a max salary slot who scored a ton of points in 2 years for a winning team vs. IT2 was never heard from again

All the small trades over the years:
-Dumped Marquis Daniels' injured neck on Sacramento and got a pick back
-Swapped the last 40 games of Eddie house's career into several seasons of Nate Robinson
-Perkins for Jeff Green not a slam dunk in eye test or chemistry, but Boston dominated the player-win-shares going forward
-Big Baby for Brandon Bass; Bass played in 300+ games for BOS averaging double figure scoring vs. Big Baby missed 21 and then 50 games due to injury with Orlando before getting traded to LAC where he averaged 4 points. out of the league before he turned 30.
-Courtney Lee became a regular rotation player for 2 years in exchange for 4 guys all playing <10 mpg
-Got Jordan Crawford for Barbosa who was injured for the year already -- Crawford started 34/39 games playing >30mpg
-Olynyk draft day trade a small win
^there are dozens of examples of things like this.


If you're going to say he has a bad track record, who has a good one?

I would say that Riley/Spol are easily better than Ainge. I'd also put Masai above him and whoever is running the Dubs. That's 3 more in addition to Pop.

Ainge blew those Nets picks and made generally speaking, bad picks. As a Suns fan, I welcome him to the Western Conf with open arms.

[puja21]

Given his track record, not sure what this will accomplish tho.

RE: "track record"
Tell me-- who besides Pop/Buford has been better as an exec in the last 15 years?

Winning
After turning what was supposed to be a 2 year window into a 6 year run: Ainge, Doc, KG, Pierce, Rondo (and Allen for all but 1 series), won 11 playoff series in 16 attempts (almost 70%) and won 56 playoff games to 43 losses (.570). They got a ring, a game 7 finals loss in the waning moments, and a 3rd trip to the conference finals.

Later with Stevens, Ainge teams went to the playoffs for 7 straight seasons including 3 conference finals in 4 years.

Free agency
For years the criticism was that he/Boston can't land max free agents... Until Ainge outbid rivals to land two (Horford and of course Hayward from these Jazz)

Draft
Ainge's few high lottery picks were elite compared to his peers in those drafts; he chose Tatum and Brown despite neither being touted locks for their slots AND he saddled Philly with Fultz. Rondo is about as good as you can get with a late first round pick.

Trades
And of course "Trader Danny" famously won probably 75%+ of his trades in Boston -- to the point it became a criticism. "No one will trade with Ainge because he 'always wants to win the deal' "
e.g.
-KG/Pierce/Terry to Brooklyn of course
-IT2 from Phoenix for Tayshayn Prince and Marcus Thornton
-Ray Allen and Big Baby from Seattle for Jeff Green, the awful Wally max contract and Delonte West
-KG for Big Al and pieces that became nothing
-Getting Kyrie ultimately not a good outcome, but obviously they added a max salary slot who scored a ton of points in 2 years for a winning team vs. IT2 was never heard from again

All the small trades over the years:
-Dumped Marquis Daniels' injured neck on Sacramento and got a pick back
-Swapped the last 40 games of Eddie house's career into several seasons of Nate Robinson
-Perkins for Jeff Green not a slam dunk in eye test or chemistry, but Boston dominated the player-win-shares going forward
-Big Baby for Brandon Bass; Bass played in 300+ games for BOS averaging double figure scoring vs. Big Baby missed 21 and then 50 games due to injury with Orlando before getting traded to LAC where he averaged 4 points. out of the league before he turned 30.
-Courtney Lee became a regular rotation player for 2 years in exchange for 4 guys all playing <10 mpg
-Got Jordan Crawford for Barbosa who was injured for the year already -- Crawford started 34/39 games playing >30mpg
-Olynyk draft day trade a small win
^there are dozens of examples of things like this.


If you're going to say he has a bad track record, who has a good one?

I would say that Riley/Spol are easily better than Ainge. I'd also put Masai above him and whoever is running the Dubs. That's 3 more in addition to Pop.

Ainge blew those Nets picks and made generally speaking, bad picks. As a Suns fan, I welcome him to the Western Conf with open arms.

Riley/Myers are strong examples but "Ainge blew those Nets picks" is one of the silliest takes I've read on here.

Which pick did he blow exactly?

One became 3rd pick Jaylen brown -- who was ranked between 7 and 10 on most big boards behind Kris Dunn, Buddy Hield, Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss, Jamaal Murray, etc...

Another became All-NBA Jayson Tatum (AND another mid 1st from Philly who again, stuck with Fultz)

One was sent with injured IT2 to Cleveland for Kyrie, who didn't workout long term, but scored 3K points and 800 ast in 2 seasons where Boston got to the conf finals and 2nd round

Two of the potential high lotto picks (SacraLakers and Memphis) didn't convey due to protections

The last pick, James Young was non-lottery. For reference: Masai and Riley took Bruno Caboclo and PJ Hairston who also were out of the league within ~100 career games like Young. How successful is anyone at getting value consistently outside the lottery anyway?

As a Suns fan, you might recall Ainge fleeced you out of Rondo at pick #21, just so Sarver could salary dump aging/injured Brian Grant.
Rondo of course all NBA, 4x all star, 4x ast champ, steals champ, 4x all defense and 2 rings
Grant played just 21 games of an injury-plagued 2 year contract from the Suns.

[puja21]

You don't need to pay someone money to sit on your assets and do nothing.

Ainge is the worst kind of guy for a team that needs to take the final step to win a title. Ainge has failed Celtics numerous times when they needed to make a few moves to repeat for a championship title. Plus teams don't wanna do business with Ainge, it's a fact, he asks for too much, then teams start demanding more from Ainge also, like when they had draft picks and all star players like Butler or George were being shipped.

So we're about to see bunch of fake trade rumors involving the Jazz next year.

Ainge wants you to throw in some 1st round picks and your best player to take his garbage off his hands.

We're not even done with his first offseason and fake rumors have turned Gobert/Mitchell into all this...

8 first round picks (5 from Minnesota, 3 unprotected from Cleveland)
2 pick swaps from Cleveland
2 trade exceptions
Collin Sexton
Lauri Markkanen
Malik Beasley
THT (via Beverley)
Ochai Agbaji (technically a lottery pick)
And various scraps (Leandro Bolmaro, Walker Kessler, Jarred Vanderbilt, Stanley Johnson)


It's a shame for Ainge that teams don't wanna do business with him and demand so much of him...
How will he ever make any trades?