JoeSixPat
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I hope this doesn't turn into another thread where people think others are bashing Ainge, but following the draft, looking aehad to free agency I thought it might be worth reviewing Ainges moves and see how folks rate them outside of the trades and free agent moves throughout his career.
For a simple summary here's a portion of a Celtics Wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Boston_Celtics#Rebuilding_anew:_The_Ainge_years
I'm interested in seeing whether people think specific moves were good, bad, or a wash:
My overall feeling looking over this is that the majority of free agent and trade moves were pretty mediocre. But then, there's a lot of mediocre talent in the NBA as well so I'm not exactly faulting Ainge for often trying to do something with nothing, or taking a chance, giving up a good player in the hopes of shaking things up enough to give himself some better ammunution.
But that being said, there was very clearly no "master plan" that was all designed to bring Garnett and Ray Allen here. Ainge kept shaking up the pieces to the puzzle hoping something good happened, but for the most part were all prety inconsequential. Meanwhile made pretty consistently excellent draft moves, and when his plan A of drafting Oden to continue rebuilding came through, with his back against the wall knowing it was do or die time for his Boston career, he made the big bold move that paid off in a BIG way to bring Allen and Garnett into town. The subsequent trades for quality free agents this past season I think come by way of good role players who wanted to come here.
But that's just my opinion.
Now with this year's free agent moves or trades, as with building roster depth last season, I think its clear that with the Big Three Ainge will have good players doing what they can to come here - so I have every confidence this offseason will be solid.
For a simple summary here's a portion of a Celtics Wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Boston_Celtics#Rebuilding_anew:_The_Ainge_years
I'm interested in seeing whether people think specific moves were good, bad, or a wash:
In 2003, the Celtics were sold by owner Paul Gaston to Boston Basketball Partners LLC, led by H. Irving Grousbeck, Wycliffe Grousbeck, Steve Pagliuca, Robert Epstein, David Epstein, and John Svenson. The team made it back to the playoffs but were swept by the Nets in the second round, despite bringing Game 4 to double overtime.
Before their elimination, the team hired Danny Ainge to take over the front office, pushing Chris Wallace to another job in the organization. Ainge believed the team had reached its peak and promptly stunned the team by sending Antoine Walker to the Dallas Mavericks (along with Tony Delk). In return, the Celtics received the oft-injured Raef LaFrentz and a first-round draft pick in 2004 (Delonte West).
On the heels of the off-season Walker trade, Ainge continued to dismantle O'Brien's team with a midseason trade that sent Eric Williams, Tony Battie, and struggling Kedrick Brown to Cleveland in exchange for troubled guard Ricky Davis, center Chris Mihm and center Michael Stewart. Reportedly distraught by this trade, O'Brien stepped down during the 2003-04 Season and was replaced by interim coach John Carroll.
Davis proved to be an exciting player, and Welsch an offensive threat from three-point range (albeit an inconsistent one), but neither was capable of playing the tenacious defense that had become a trademark of O'Brien's teams. The acquisition of LaFrentz also proved problematic, as LaFrentz's chronic knee problems acted up and forced the big man to miss all but 17 games.
Still, with Pierce playing at his usual level, Davis providing a second scoring punch, and occasional help from rookie Marcus Banks at point guard the Celtics prepared for yet another playoff run. In February, the Celtics helped their former nemeses, the Detroit Pistons acquire Rasheed Wallace for their own title run, sending Mike James off to Detroit in exchange for a 1st-round pick as well as Chucky Atkins, who would provide the Celtics with a stabilizing veteran point guard to go with the inconsistent Banks.
Ainge received a lot of criticism for dismantling the previous team, but he attempted to redeem himself in the draft. After selecting Banks and center Kendrick Perkins in 2003, Ainge added high school power forward Al Jefferson, St. Joseph's University standout Delonte West (with the Mavericks pick from the Antoine Walker trade), and the athletic Tony Allen (with the Pistons 1st-round pick acquired in the Atkins-James swap) in 2004. During his second off-season, Ainge was able to unload some payroll when he acquired veterans Gary Payton and Rick Fox from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Mihm, Atkins and bench player Jumaine Jones. Fox retired rather than rejoin the team and Payton threatened to hold out of training camp, but he eventually ended up playing for the team during the 2004-05 Season.
The Celtics were a young team under new coach Doc Rivers, yet they seemed to have a core of good young players, led by rookie Al Jefferson, to go along with a selection of able veterans (Paul Pierce, a now-healthy Raef LaFrentz, and Ricky Davis). Before the trading deadline in the winter of 2005 the Celtics re-acquired Antoine Walker when they dealt Gary Payton to the Atlanta Hawks (Payton would re-sign with the team after being released from the Hawks a week later). With Walker back in the fold, the Celtics improved enormously. The Celtics went 45-37 and won their first Atlantic Division title since 1991-92. The Pacers defeated them in the first round yet again, with the series culminating in an embarrassing 27 point 7th game loss at the Fleet Center.
At the conclusion of the 2004-05 season Payton and Walker both became free agents. Walker was sent to the Miami Heat in a multi-team sign-and-trade deal (the largest trade in NBA history) that brought the Celtics Qyntel Woods and Curtis Borchardt, both of whom would later be released, two future second-round draft picks, the rights to Spanish center Albert Miralles, and cash. Payton later chose to sign with the Heat as well. Ainge brought in a few more young players during the draft, including Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, and Orien Greene. Ainge also added the veteran Brian Scalabrine, signing Scalabrine to a 5-year/$15 million contract.
During the 2005-06 season, Ainge traded Davis, Blount, Banks, Justin Reed, and two conditional second-round draft picks to the Minnesota Timberwolves for forward Wally Szczerbiak, centers Michael Olowokandi and Dwayne Jones, and a first-round pick. Many were skeptical about this decision. However, Ainge stated more than once that he was committed to continuing the rebuilding process under team captain Paul Pierce, who played some of the best basketball of his career in 2006. Despite Pierce's excellence, the Celtics missed the 2006 playoffs with a 33-49 record.
The Boston Celtics continued to rebuild on the night of the 2006 NBA Draft. Danny Ainge traded the rights to seventh overall pick Randy Foye, Dan ****au and Raef LaFrentz to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, and a future second-round pick. A subsequent trade with the Philadelphia 76ers for Allen Iverson was reported as a potential move beneficial to each team, although such a trade never happened and Iverson was shipped to the Denver Nuggets in December. Orien Greene was waived, and the Celtics replaced him by trading a first-round pick in the 2007 NBA Draft to the Phoenix Suns for rookie Rajon Rondo. In the second round the Celtics added Leon Powe to the team, and later signed Villanova star Allan Ray as an undrafted free agent.
On May 22, the Celtics were assigned the 5th overall selection in the NBA Draft Lottery, essentially losing their chance of drafting either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant, who both were considered to go 1st and 2nd in the Draft. The 5th pick was the worst-case scenario for the Celtics, who had a 19.9% chance of obtaining the 1st overall selection. However, on June 28, the day of the 2007 NBA Draft, the Celtics traded the 5th pick along with Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West to the Seattle SuperSonics in exchange for All-Star 3-point specialist Ray Allen and the 35th overall selection prior to the event, and with the 5th pick selected forward Jeff Green for Seattle.[34] In the second round of the Draft, the Celtics selected guard Gabe Pruitt with the 32nd pick, which was their own, and forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis with the 35th pick, previously obtained from Seattle.[35]
On July 31, the Celtics traded for 10-time All-Star and 2004 MVP Kevin Garnett in the single largest trade for one player in NBA history.[36] He was acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Boston's 2009 first-round draft pick (top three protected), the return of Minnesota's conditional first-round draft pick previously obtained in the 2006 Ricky Davis-Wally Szczerbiak trade and cash considerations.[37]
My overall feeling looking over this is that the majority of free agent and trade moves were pretty mediocre. But then, there's a lot of mediocre talent in the NBA as well so I'm not exactly faulting Ainge for often trying to do something with nothing, or taking a chance, giving up a good player in the hopes of shaking things up enough to give himself some better ammunution.
But that being said, there was very clearly no "master plan" that was all designed to bring Garnett and Ray Allen here. Ainge kept shaking up the pieces to the puzzle hoping something good happened, but for the most part were all prety inconsequential. Meanwhile made pretty consistently excellent draft moves, and when his plan A of drafting Oden to continue rebuilding came through, with his back against the wall knowing it was do or die time for his Boston career, he made the big bold move that paid off in a BIG way to bring Allen and Garnett into town. The subsequent trades for quality free agents this past season I think come by way of good role players who wanted to come here.
But that's just my opinion.
Now with this year's free agent moves or trades, as with building roster depth last season, I think its clear that with the Big Three Ainge will have good players doing what they can to come here - so I have every confidence this offseason will be solid.