<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jul 31 2008, 11:35 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thrilla @ Jul 31 2008, 10:47 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jul 30 2008, 11:38 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thrilla @ Jul 31 2008, 12:27 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I really don't feel like explaining to you how incredibly horrible the roster that Ainge inherited was. Please go look at it. He very successfully turned a roster full of overpaid useless veterans into a roster full of young players with upside and inflated trade value. He was in talks for every major star that hit the trade market, but was patient enough to wait for the right ones.</div>
I really don't feel like going through all of his draft mistakes and horrible roster moves. He got lucky with Al Jefferson, otherwise, the roster had minimal value.
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Draft mistakes?
Solid picks: Al Jefferson, Rajon Rondo, Delonte West, Kendrick Perkins, Ryan Gomes, Leon Powe
Decent picks: Tony Allen, Glen Davis, Justin Reed
Busts: Marcus Banks, Gerald Green
All of these picks were made with late first round and second round picks. His draft record is better than any other GM that hasn't had a lottery pick. Sure the Telfair trade was dumb on draft day, but in return he traded a 3 yr commitment to LaFrentz for 2 yrs of Ratliff, which was key in landing Garnett. But in your logic, when you hate a guy, a good pick is "luck" and 2 bad picks out of 11 is a ton of draft mistakes. He has done dumb stuff, sure, but he's been an above average GM.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Being in talks for every major star is GM-speak for desperately trying to make a deal. Zeke too was in talks for every major star that hit the trade market and plenty more that weren't on the market.</div>
Wrong again. Ainge had the package to get the Iversons of the world when they were available. Zeke did not. Zeke was exactly as you describe, Ainge was not. The Celtics could have gotten any of the major stars that have been traded in the past 3 years for the Jefferson package. But Ainge wasn't willing to part with those players unless what he got was well worth it. He showed a lot of patience waiting for the right deal, all the while having to listen to people (like you) bash him for no other reason than they don't particularly like him.
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Like I said, I don't have the time to go through all of his many, many mistakes, so I'll list a few.
Ainge traded for LaFrentz in the first place</div> This says more about Antoine's trade value. That trade was fine in my book because Walker was a black hole and LaFrentz fit nicely into the offense when he was healthy. He also got a first round draft pick in the deal.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Ainge turned down a trade from Houston during the 2005 Draft for their 2005 and 2006 First round picks to take Gerald Green</div>This is not true. It is mere speculation. Ainge gets rock hard for first round draft picks and wouldn't have turned it down. Gerald Green was not somebody on his radar, but he was almost forced to pick him that late in the draft.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Ainge had made a promise to draft Monta Ellis and backed out of it</div>This may be true, but Green was supposed to go top 5 and slid all the way down to 18. In hindsight, this looks bad, but every team on the board passed on Ellis, as well. To me, you have to credit Ainge for recognizing the talent in Ellis and making a promise to draft him at 18, when other GMs viewed him as a mid 2nd rounder. Ainge selecting Green was an impulse pick where Danny wasn't really relying on his own judgment.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Ainge made the moronic trade for Wally</div>Moronic? He traded away Blount's horrible contract, a 12th man, and Ricky Davis for Wally, a 12th man, an expiring contract and a 1st round pick. What is moronic about that? Mark Blount is garbage, and Ainge should have never signed him in the first place. Getting rid of him was worth more than anything in the deal. And Ricky for Wally was a wash. Had Wally never got injured, he would have been a better fit on the team, especially considering how much of a negative effect Davis had in the locker room and with the younger players. The key here is the first round pick, which puts a W in Ainge's column for the trade. The pick was later used in the Garnett deal and Wally was later used in the Allen deal.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Al Jefferson was the only player on the roster that was valuable in a major trade and no, the Celtics could not have gotten any of the major stars with that package. McHale had turned down better packages in the past.</div>Al Jefferson was the only player good enough to be the centerpiece in a deal, not the only one of value. Take a look at what it took for teams to land some of the bigger stars that have gone on the market. Al Jefferson is, or at least will be, the best player a team recieved in return for an aging star. The league was also very high on Gerald Green at the time thanks to the way the Celtics were handling him. Also, what better offers did McHale receive? I don't remember any. Maybe you read something on ESPN and confused it for fact. Seems like you do that a lot.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>It is hilarious for you to say that I don't like Ainge, because that is completely false. He was one of my favorite players after the Tree Rollins incident. I have no bias against him. He is simply an incompetent GM that got lucky after his first few directions didn't work.</div>You have me fooled, then. Because it certainly seems to me that you have something against him. Either that, or you have a tendency to downplay positives and exaggerate negatives, which I think is also the case. Ainge had to walk a fine line in Boston with fans and owners who wanted to see a team on the court competing. They don't stand for rebuilding teams in Boston these days, and at times, this had Ainge making some moves that went against what always was his plan. Ainge said from the beginning that his plan was to revamp the roster through the draft, and he did. He had to rebuild but remain competitive at the same time, which is very difficult to do, but he pulled it off. There were moves along the way that were pretty confusing, but there has been speculation that the ownership was forcing him to keep enough veterans on the team to remain a playoff contender.
There are only 2 ways to become a championship team these days. You have to get lucky and land a superstar like LeBron or Kobe in the draft, or you have to be in postion to pounce on the older superstars when they hit the market. Like it or not, Ainge put together some packages with players he acquired to land Ray Allen and KG in the same year, all the while retaining Paul Pierce. If Danny was so incompetent, he wouldn't have been in the position to pull that off. You're expectations of a GM are unrealistic if you deny him any credit for what he has done.
