Danny Under The Microscope

Best Move Getting a #1 pick for Yuri Welch(Rondo)
Worst Move Taking on Raef’s contract Crippled us for years

Best Move: Drafting Al Jefferson
Worst Move: Re-signing Mark Blount

best move- al jefferson worst move- hiring and rehiring doc rivers

best move: uttering the line “they forgot about larry bird.”
worst move: everything since then

best move: Getting rid of the human anchor Wally, an already peaked Delonte West and the #5 for Ray Allen (call me a “Sucker” I guess)

worst move: getting his shot blocked, on a break away layup, by Doc Rivers in the Playoffs (luckily it was called a goaltend)

best move: drafting Al, West, TA and Justin Reed in one year.
Worst move: tie between the Antoine/Dallas trade and the Ricky/Wally trade. C’s got crapped on in both deals.

Seeing the full list has made me question Danny more than I ever thought I had reason to previously. Other than drafting, he hasn’t accomplished many positives.

best = drafting al & keeping pierce somehow worst = convincing 90% of the celtics world of a philosophy that didn’t exist…

Wow…it’s like, you knew he hasn’t done much right except for drafting, but then you see all the moves grouped together like that and it just hits you like a ton of breaks. That’s it, I’m officially on the fire Danny Ainge bandwagon.

best move: paul pierce still plays here? seriously? he didn’t head for the hills yet?

worst move: making my head hurt and blood start spurting out my nose when i looked at his long term game plan in action

Best move: Helping the Pistons win a ring and prevent the Fakers from getting championship no.15…which could have led to no. 16 as they probably won’t break a championship team in’05.
Absolute Worst move: THE HIRING OF DOC RIVERS…need i say more

The outrage over the Antoine trade is understandable if you focus on the right reasons. 1) that Danny knew LaFrentz was injured. 2) that LaFrentz’s contract led to trading the Rookie of the Year for Sebastian Telfair. In the first instance, it was classic Ainge naivete. The second, however, is wholly the fault of Grousbeck and the owners who wanted to cut costs. If LaFrentz had been healthy and given his usual 15/8, it really wasn’t a bad deal.

I would rate Ainge’s worst move as the re-signing of Pierce because it essentially guarantees that the franchise will not win a title over the next ten years. It triggered the soon-to-be-regretted Ray Allan trade, created the constant threat of Al Jefferson being traded, and will probably spell the end of Gerald Green and several future #1’s before this offseason is over. Then we will have four more years of Pierce-led mediocrity, followed by yet another rebuilding effort. Way to go Danny.

Ainge’s best move was probably the Jumaine Jones trade, because if I read the list correctly, it was the sole time he was willing to part with one of his comically overvalued/beloved 2nd round picks.

I figure most here probably think I live on another planet. In most cases, it’s very hard to evaluate trades until more time has passed than has yet clicked by. There are ( )’s and
(-)’s to all his trades. The most maligned of his trades still have pluses and the verdict is still out on the first Antoine trade that brought us Tony Allen, I think. Signing Antoine for more than a year at that point would have been a big problem as time has attested to. Bringing Antoine back for the playoff run wasn’t really worth the pick it cost. And trading him the second time was a true necessity to begin to rebuilding a “team” and creating long term plan.

He did well collecting picks at the beginning and building for the future, but obviously judgment on most of those is still a few years away. For example I think his trade for Perkins will look very good in a year or two. Most here are enjoying simplistic snap judgments on multi-faceted deals.

George Meyer, your projections may happen. But I hope and really don’t think they will. I think Jefferson is not going anywhere and I hope they give Gerald two more years under Ray Allen’s tutelage before making a decision. The payoff potential is too high to trade him for the limited value he has now. I agree with you it wouldn’t be wise. And I think Pierce has been and will be among the all-time great Celtics, an invaluable leader and model for the development of the young guys, a productive player for several years to come and worth every dollar they pay him. I will now return to the planet you folks think I come from. I think coming from that planet must give me better perspective which is a bit lagging here.

I give a thumbs-up to most if not all of Ainge’s early deals, even the Walker to Dallas one that eventually netted Tony Allen, Delonte West and Rajon Rondo. The Blount signing was, I feel, owner-driven and was applauded by the majority of fans until big Mark drifted off and became Nowhere Man.

What I haven’t liked has been the last two draft night deals. The fan in me hopes Telfair can turn it around and become an effective point guard partner to Rondo, in the same way as I hope a Ray Allen/Paul Pierce wing combo can put up 50 points a game and lead the team deep into the playoffs. But if you gave me the chance to trade Allen and Telfair for Brandon Roy and either Corey Brewer or Yi Jianlian, I’d pull that trigger in a heartbeat.

Clearly the best time for Ainge was the 2004 draft, which netted Jefferson, TA, and DWest. Nothing else has been significant.
  The worst is very competitive. But extending Pierce for 80MM creates a future of medicrity at best.
   Don’t knock any Walker trade. He’s useless

Danny’s worst deal was Eric Williams, Tony Battie, Kedrick Brown for Ricky Davis and Chris Mihm. The addition of Davis cost the C’s their coach, and his volatile personality and on-off defense meant he would never be more than a short term fix. And by trading away Battie, Danny put the center position in the hands of two previously underachieving free-agents-to-be, making it likely at least one of them would put on a phony salary drive. Dealing Battie forced the C’s to overpay for Mark’s services, and indirectly led to the salary cap stressing Szcerbiak deal. It looked good at the time, but this deal turned out awful.

Woah what ever happened to JR Bremer

 Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Hindsight is 20-20. Even his high marks for drafting may be an illusion. In 2003 there were better players available than Banks and Perkins when Boston had the 16 & 20 pick. Gomes fell in his lap at 50, but he could have Amir Johnson if he had not given Orien Greene a promise. And GGreen may not have been the steal of the draft after all. Even his great 2004 draft, he missed on Kevin Martin and Verejao.
  How would this team look today if , in 2003 he drafted David West and Josh Howard in 2003, let AWalker walk, and drafted Jefferson, Martin and Verajao in 2004; David Lee instead of GGreen in 2005. And not trading Raef, because we never had him. Instead we drafted Rondo at #7 last year.
   Coulda, shoulda woulda. Nobody knows. Its pretty easy to draft looking in the rear view mirror.

Best move: dumping Mr. 38% the first time, closely followed by dumping him the second time.

Worst move: Trading McCarty and failing to sign him to a long-term contract.

Andy Jick said:

 can i change my best move to biting tree rollins?

Andy,
It was " Tree Bites Man" Not Man Bites Tree

VT Bill,
There’s one flaw in your post: If he had drafted differently one year, the Celtics likely would not have had the same draft positions in subsequent years. So, you can really combine really draftees (Jefferson) with imaginary ones (Martin, David Lee). If he had done one draft differently, it likely would have changed every subsequent draft.

I too thought Danny was good drafter but the chronolgy of activities shows he was only bringing us back to dead even with the rest of his decisions (and I’m being kind!). Play the cards you’ve dealt yourself (and us) Danny. Stop making moves. The Allen trade and Davis/Wallace/Pruitt pick-ups are good moves and enough. Take your ritalin and chill!