Ainge On Cold Streak

I’d still rather have Szczerbiak and Minnesota’s #1 than Mark Blount’s contract and Ricky Davis. IMO, those Blount was more of a negative in the clubhouse than anyone wanted to admit.

With regards to the Telfair deal, it was covering up a mistake that he made earlier with LaFrentz. With him on the roster, we’d be talking about which young player would we be trading to not go over the cap.

Also the last deal he made officially was Rajon Rondo for Jiri Welsch.

I’ll admit manny times the dummy in me comes out!

so feel free to call me a big dummy too.[/i]
You’re a dummy.

, those Blount was more of a negative in the clubhouse than anyone wanted to admit.

How the heck are you privy to clubhouse dynamics? The problem with Blount wasn’t that he was a bad player, it was that he was a decent role player with a star’s contract. He just wasn’t worth what he was getting paid. And guess who’s fault that was. Yet another example of Danny compounding boneheaded decisions with more boneheaded decisions.

The Welsh for Rondo trade was a good move but it was insignificant.

Jeff, why are you even bothering to post what Sheridan has to say? Its obvious that, on the whole, Danny’s trade record has been laughably horrendous. Remember, this was the guy who enabled the ridiculously lopsided Rasheed Wallace trade for absolutely no good reason. That trade alone cemented his reputation as an atrocious deal maker. The fact that you guys agreed with his logic on any of his trades speaks very poorly of your judgment. I’m sorry I had to put it that way but it had to be said.

The comments that have come out in Minnesota from Garnett about certain players seem consistent with the one’s said about Blount when he left Boston in the Globe and the Herald. Bury your head in the sand all you want. I agree that the Blount signing was terrible and should be a strike against Ainge. The trade. Still don’t see it as a negative.

My point is that you can’t separately count the unloading of Blount as a positive aspect of the trade, since Ainge is the one who signed him.

I mean if he can’t get the best of McHale, who can he get the best of? Anyway, see here http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/2007/03/why_do_sportswriters_hate_capi/ for an interesting discussion on why its dumb to pick winners and losers of non zero sum transactions. This is probably true in general. But, both Danny’s and Kevin’s trades are so badly thought out and short-sighted that you have no choice but to think of them as zero sum games.

I believe we will essentially trade Powe (last years 49th pick) for the Warriors 2nd rounder this year, which should be in the mid 40’s. Powe’s got some skill, so it looks like a wash to me.

 Trading for Raef in the first place was horrible. The Zoolander deal and the Telfair debacle have both been more than horrible. Coaching decisions have been horrible. In my opinion, Oh Danny Boy is given a tremendous amount of slack by fans because of his connection to the 86 team.

Is Danny through making stupid trades or does he have a few more up his sleeve for this coming draft. I used to be an unconditional Danny supporter cause I thought he had it in him. But in time, analizying the trades he has made; like an amigo said, he has spent most of his time making trades to unmake bad trades he made earlier. Thats the holy truth. The only first rate player he has traded for so far was Ricky, but like another poster said: who isso privy to really know waht goes in a locker room to flatly say that Ricky MIGHT have been a locker problem.
Didsnt Danny say he was amassing alot of young Turks so he could make some blockbusting trades for proven veterans? When is that going to happen? We can only be sure it wont be today. Blount had abilities cause he shows them whern he wants to. He had to go, of course. The question remains; Why did he stop playing for us? What mistakes did we make with him that he went blank? It takes two to tango; How could he con us into a huge contract the third? time around. Dont we have managerial personnel that can smell a rat when they see one?
I just dont know what Danny has in store for us;I dont know anymore if he has anything left in his thinking tank.
Just dont tell me that Scal and Wally were good aquisitions; not to mention Raef, the Dwarf, Welsh, etc. etc etc. Bassy was his most recent mistake. What will he come up for this draft? God help us.

Agree completely with Reyquila. I initially thought that Ainge was going to be a great GM to bring us back to greatness but his trades have been horrible. Al Jefferson is the only really good player that could be playing as a starter in most teams today. Green and Rondo may eventually turn out to be very good but that remains to be seen. Perkins will never be more than a back up center if that much. The other players are role players. Dont think that Danny can go wrong if draftin 1-2 but beware of his trades this summer.

Yeah, Jeff, and I’m a big dummy too, except that I really didn’t want Ricky to go…Afterwards, when I heard about the locker room drivel, I made it OK with me, but, still…
And as far as Wally is concerned, there was no way of knowing that his wheels would fall off…It was a gamble…Wally is an extremely intelligent player and a dead shot when his sneakers fit…I’m glad he’s part of the Celtics organization and it’s his injury, as much as anything else, that has us watching the King Pong show as closely as we are…Ricky and Blount for Oden or Durant and the Basketball Gods look like this ;D
As far as Telfair is concerned, he averaged 31 ppg his senior year of HS…He’s a 6’ point guard and 31 ppg’s…Man, what’s happened???…Something hss happened…Maybe it’s the extreme expectations, I don’t know, but something is wrong…31 ppg’s in 32 minute games…Think about it, seriously…Where has it gone…I still think there’s the possibility that he may wake up and bury his legion of doubters…and, I think he averaged 8 assists per also…Let’s put it this way, on paper would you have bet on this guy…Abso-friggin-lutely…

IMO, you have to look at the trades as independent trades. Ainge’s mistake was signing Blount not trading him to Minnesota.

The fact that Danny has to constantly make one trade to try to come back and shore up the weaknesses wrought by the previous trade says it all to me. You can only rearrange the chairs on the deck of the Titanic so many times before, ultimately, it will sink.
Danny’s saving grace, of course, has been some smart draft picks that may, ultimately, add up to a good team. But it’s taking TOO MUCH TIME, because of a.) The problems that come with a youth development, and b.) All those crappy trades (and the injuries and Doc’s coaching and so on and so forth).
So fire Doc in the offseason if you can line up a better coach (Adelman?), give Danny one more year, and if we don’t make the playoffs AND advance past the first round next season, Danny’s GONE.
Short version: He can’t trade worth a lick and has to make still more trades to make up for them. What a crappy, vicious circle.

Agree with you, Buddy Big Easy. Danny cant trade to save his life and……time should start to run against his tenure with us. I dont want to have to be born again to see the celtics gain the degree of respectability they had in the first half of the 80’s when the became part of my life.

On the whole, believe it or not, I like what Danny has done for the future of the Celtics. He has made some inarguably bad trades but compensated with cap control (patience to not spend on mediocracy) and solid drafting. Let’s just say any future trades of consequence ought to have as much scrutiny from the Celtics camp as possible.

And a side note, can we all chip in to reimburse Danny for giving Durant’s mom some $$$ to bribe her to allow Kevin to go pro? If Oden or Durant stay, I think I will cry. ;)

Nice article. The best thing (from a Cs fan’s point of view) is the title: “Ainge On Cold Streak”. As we know, cold streaks don’t last forever — the implication is that soon Ainge will get a hot hand again! My guess is that first starts in May (lottery balls) and continues through late June (lottery)….. I can’t wait for this offseason, but am enjoying the Ws when they come.

I have to laugh, Jeff you are a class act, and more in here could take a lesson in your honesty and humility. That said, I too was with you on Ainge’s moves and have, still not given up hope. To be a GM in this league is all about having the gonads to take risk. In the course of Ainges tenure I would approach it as he did. That is taking a gamble on the high school picks with his mid round selections. As the risk, with reward ratio is very high if the players pan out. I laugh when I read that Perkins will never amount to anything more than a serviceable back up and no more. The same was said of Jermaine Oneal in his years in Portland. In fact if you compare Oneal first three years stats and minutes played they mirror each other. I was hoping this 4th year for Perk would be his break out year like Oneal. However his foot problems, along with rule changes to the physical play in the center has hindered him. I myself still have faith that next year will be his year. On Green, as it has been said before his early stats are better than Tracy McGrady’s and equal to other all stars. On Jefferson just less than 12 months ago fans in this site were writing him off as they are Perkins now. And look. On Telfair, the verdict is still out. Telfair came into the league with exceptionally high expectations for a kid out of high school. Ainge took the gamble again that the kid might just be on the cusp of getting it. He still just might. He is entering into a new contract this summer, if we can pick him up cheap for a couple of years, I’d still ride out that gamble. I still give my backing to Ainge because he’s staying the course with this. Jefferson is a prime example. You can just look to New York and see what happens when you load a team with high priced vets. If our high school players all make that cross over to their “potential” then look out you have a championship team for years to come. Call me a dummy along with you Jeff, I couldn’t be prouder of the company I keep. On the trades I always think of that as the most risky of gambles. Just look back at Celtic history on “Veteran” all stars we have brought in here over the years hardly any have worked out. On these armchair fans who scream their criticisum after the fact! Please give me a break…anyone can complain and look great looking back. It takes class to take the risk and stand behind your convictions. To you Jeff, I raise my glass along with Mr. Ainge….I’m proud to stand with you and I still think the verdict is out.

oh on Oden and Durant coming out. Did anyone see that article awhile back where Oden was saying he had to study for his class, (get this)"A History of Rock n’ Roll". If this is thier college experience give me a break. Thier coming out. LOL

Disclaimer — I’m a big dummy too.

" I’m still cool with the Minnesota deal, as well, and understand the necessity of the Portland deal.

I hear Sheridan thinks we lost the Leon Powe deal (because he didn’t do his research); what did he have to say about the Rondo trade?"

I’m concerned we’ll never see that Minnesota pick; I think Danny got fleeced on the Rondo pick given that Portland just gave up cash to get Rodriguez; and the Portland deal was definitely not necessary, as it doesn’t give us anything we didn’t already have — it doesn’t give us cap flexibility, and it doesn’t improve our ability to re-sign our young players, because we already could do that.

But chrsux, why don’t you like the Rasheed Wallace deal that gave us Tony Allen for basically nothing?

Alaska, I understand where your coming from but just looking at Strainge’s trades on surface level (which Sheridan has to do) they look bad. I was a big Danny fan when he came on board (could of waited until after the playoffs to announce it though). But the problem I see is that if we end up with Oden or Durant we ultimately will end up with a good team through mostly no benefit of Danny’s expertise. We should be looking at a 8th to 10th spot in the lottery. Danny is going to reap the benefits of Paul’s misfortune. If all being fair, he should end up with the 3rd pick and then we can see if he can extricate himself from that predicament. But the C’s fan in me wants to see us get the #1.

so now if Danny ever puts a good team together,still a big if after he blew 2 yrs with O’B & Walker,he gets no credit? but you can still see it in your heart to hope we get a top pick? Celtic fans everywhere thank you for your pity…

Actually, I’m now hoping for wins that can potentially result in a lower draft selection. The lower the pick, the greater the possibility of Danny the Incompetent getting the axe.

I’m a Danny supporter. He is below average on trades, above average on draft. Just like all of you, he has strengths/weaknesses. Telfair was a good gamble but he’s now playing behind Alan Ray. I think that he is a bust. And I saw Ratliff as a huge plus over Raef – neither have given their teams much but at least we’re out from under Ratliff earlier. That’s not nothing!

What pity?? As any fan would, I hope we get the top pick. jeeeesh!! The basketball gods may have a different plan for Danny. Then again, some people think the bball gods owe us from the 97 lottery. Whatever, Ainge may have to wheel and deal again if he ends up 3rd. Heaven help us!!

I nearly pooped my pants at the first trade…sure Blount was apparently horrible for the team, but he was “alright” and not making that much money- plus he is a big guy. I have always thought Ricky was better than Wally. I guess we will find out if it was worth it when we finally get that pick.

The 2nd trade isn’t that bad, as we are out of Raef’s contract. I liked the idea, but didn’t want to give up that #7. Seeing how we probably would have taken Rondo anyway, it’s not that big of a deal. I guess we will see who Phoenix takes with the Celts pick they got from Cleveland this year, and if he is great- then we are basically “screwed”

I think something that gets lost a lot of times when discussing the Telfair trade is the fact that Ainge coveted Rondo and there was a lot of talk of the Celts even taking Rondo with the 7th pick. If that was what was going to happen then getting rid of Raef’s salary while picking up another young point guard, may not have been as bad of a deal as everyone makes it out to be.