Gotta give it to Danny Ainge

[NJHAWK]

Man when the Celtics got the 5th pick in the lottery instead of the top 1 or 2 picks I remember thinking they would be the leagues laughingstock for years to come. I remember the look on Ainge and their fans faces when that happened. Low and behold less than a year later they win the friggin NBA Title. Shyyt who cares about all that " they mortgaged the future talk". They are CHAMPS. Their fans will alwyas remember that. Dam if they won the lottery they would have sorry ayss Oden, no title and no future.

[frosgrim]

I was one that really questioned the Allen trade, but it really worked out for the Cs and I am happy

Ainge deserves some credit, if not a lot of credit, for pulling off those trades. Of course McHale and Ainge's relationship didn't hurt either.

The Cs did what they should have done, make the play for the championship when they had a chance to get it. It will be interesting to see how long that team remains signficant though. I think they have one more run in them, but after next year, they will be in decline. :Handshake_emoticon_-_UPDATED:

[coachx]

Agree 100%

Props to Danny for making something out of his lemon on lottery night (slipping from the 1st pick to the 5th pick).

What if Boston won the lottery and drafted Oden #1 ? Would the KG / Jefferson trade have ever happened ? I doubt it, they would probably let Jefferson and Oden grow together with Perkins off the bench. We know the Ray Allen trade would not have gone down. No guarantee the Jefferson / Oden combo would ever win a championship with Pierce already at 30. Things worked out beautifully. Your legacy is remembered by Championships and now Danny has a ring as a GM (though he should probably find a way to get Kevin McHale one too since he is just as responsible for helping out the Celtics since the Laker were hot for Garnett too it made his choice easy.)

This is the first time I can recall a team losing out on the #1 pick and actually benefiting from it. They got 1 Championship and counting !

If your a Lakers fan its too bad Minnesota didn't hire Jerry West / Pat Riley or another former Laker as their GM. You know Jerry would have handed KG over to the Lakers and not the Celtics.

[bird_dirt]

i'm not handing him crap. the c's got to the finals thru trading jefferson/scrubs/picks for friggin' kg and allen? l.a. got help by trading scrubs for gasol.

i hope sund has friends that owe favors to him so we could trade marvin or chillz and scrubs for lebron, dwight, or some other major all stars. aparently, that's the way to make it to the finals. being one of stern's lapdogs doesn't hurt, either.

[jhay610]

I dont think it should count against Ainge that he pulled some strings with a guy he knew to land Garnett. Besides, it wasn't like Kevin called Danny first thing and dealt exclusively with him. The Wolves were entertaining offers from several other teams at the time Ainge swooped in and made the deal.

The NBA is an exclusive fraternity. The fact that Ainge has some connections should be looked at as a major plus for him, as it should with any GM. Hell, who you know is far more important than what you know in most walks of life.

[coachx]

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i'm not handing him crap. the c's got to the finals thru trading jefferson/scrubs/picks for friggin' kg and allen? l.a. got help by trading scrubs for gasol.

i hope sund has friends that owe favors to him so we could trade marvin or chillz and scrubs for lebron, dwight, or some other major all stars. aparently, that's the way to make it to the finals. being one of stern's lapdogs doesn't hurt, either.

LOL.....I have to have some fun with you !

An emotional and dejected Lakers fan I presume.

Danny did all this:

1. Brought in KG

2. Brought in Allen

3. #1 & #2 changed the culture in Boston and now they were the prefered destination of veteran free agents

4. Signed Posey

5. Talked PJ Brown out of retirement

6. Got Clippers to cut Cassell so he could help back up Rondo

7. Drafted 4 serviceable bigs late in the draft in Davis, Powe, Perkins, and Gomes.

8. Won a freaking championship by beating the Lakers in only 5 games with the decideing game being the biggest blow out in NBA Finals history.

And you give the guy no credit ?

I hate to hear your feelings on other GMs.

The truth is that Ainge pushed the button on all of these deals to win RIGHT NOW and they did....so he deserves all the credit in the world for what a GM is responsible for.

Now I will let you go back to weeping in your Kobe Bryant jersey. See you at the next Lakers / Hawks game with all the other Laker "celebrity want to be" fans.

[Plastic Man]

Ainge was given gifts from McHale and Seattle. The rest isn't even possible without those gifts.

[dlpin]

the whole "friendship with McHale" angle has been overplayed and was in reality a very small part of why this deal for KG went down. People just look at them and think this was what happened, but forget all the deals that didnt go through.

Phoenix was the frontrunner to land KG, but they didnt want to include Amare in the deal. Then it was Dallas, but they didnt want to include Nowitzki, then it was the lakers, but they didnt want to include Bynum and wanted to dump Odom as well, who is signed for multiple years. With Bynum, Amare and Nowitzki out of the picture, there simply wasnt any other team with a young big man, good draft pick (remember, only one of those draft picks was originally boston's, the other one was Min.s' own pick, which is surely a lottery pick) and enough expiring contracts to make the deal work. It was more like Ainge lucked into this, as opposed to pulling strings with his old friend.

This whole thing has to be really, really sour for Suns fans: first D'antoni did not want Thibodeau signed as an assistant coach, then they didnt want to part ways with Amare. Had things gone a little different, it could have been them celebrating the title right now.

[coachx]

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This whole thing has to be really, really sour for Suns fans: first D'antoni did not want Thibodeau signed as an assistant coach, then they didnt want to part ways with Amare. Had things gone a little different, it could have been them celebrating the title right now.

Good point !

The topic may need its own thread !

[jhay610]

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Ainge was given gifts from McHale and Seattle. The rest isn't even possible without those gifts.

Some people will just hate no matter what. I am no Boston fan by any stretch but I don't have a problem giving credit where its due. Unless a story breaks about Stern mandating trades for certain players between certain teams I am more than willing to give a guy his due.

If this hadn't worked and the C's had a 2nd round exit then Ainge would certainly be catching all kinds of heat for mortgaging the future away and not getting results. Why are we then so reluctant to credit him for a well-laid and well-executed plan?

I am almost as impressed about the pieces he built around the Big 3 with as I am with the triad itself.

Thanks for your post dlpin

[dlpin]

Ainge has been really good at the draft whenever Boston kept its picks.

Just look at some of his picks:

Perkins (27th pick)

Al Jefferson (15th)

Delonte West (24th pick)

Ryan Gomes (50th)

Rondo (21st)

Davis (35th)

He gave away Randy Foye, but still, solid record. Only 1st round picks that didnt pan out were marcus banks and gerald green. Other than that, never picking higher than 15 he got 1 future all star (al jefferson), 2 starters on a championship team and a few serviceable back ups.

[Cwell]

technically they didn't draft Rondo and Perkins.they traded for them

[dlpin]

they were draft day trades, so it wasnt much different.

[pound4pound]

No doubt - I didn't think it would work really.

Pierce / Allen / KG had done nothing with their teams the years before. KG HAD given up in Minny and I thought Allen had lost a step. My in-laws live in Minnesota and I honestly thought that the wolves got the better of that trade. It looked like Ainge was just adding pieces to save his ass and Doc Rivers had never been impressive once he left Orlando.

I was wrong as hell.

Ainge made a bench out of thin air with Casell, House, Posey, and Brown. KG was playing like he was 10 years younger and willed his team to play world class defense. Rondo made jump shots and Perkins allowed KG to rome. Peirce played inspired ball and looked more like an MVP than Kobe with his all around play.

Hats off the Celtics.

[AHF]

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Ainge was given gifts from McHale and Seattle. The rest isn't even possible without those gifts.

The #5 pick in the draft for Ray Allen was not a gift, IMO. That was a fine deal for Seattle.

The KG deal is more questionable but isn't as terrible as people make it out. Minnesota got a lottery pick (their own) and a 20/10 guy in Al Jefferson. That isn't in the same ballpark as a deal like Gasol or Vince Carter, in my opinion.

When the Braves traded Adam Wainright for JD Drew, Drew went on a tear for Atlanta and that trade looked pretty good. It looks pretty craptastic now.

[bird_dirt]

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i'm not handing him crap. the c's got to the finals thru trading jefferson/scrubs/picks for friggin' kg and allen? l.a. got help by trading scrubs for gasol.

i hope sund has friends that owe favors to him so we could trade marvin or chillz and scrubs for lebron, dwight, or some other major all stars. aparently, that's the way to make it to the finals. being one of stern's lapdogs doesn't hurt, either.

LOL.....I have to have some fun with you !

An emotional and dejected Lakers fan I presume.

Danny did all this:

1. Brought in KG

2. Brought in Allen

3. #1 & #2 changed the culture in Boston and now they were the prefered destination of veteran free agents

4. Signed Posey

5. Talked PJ Brown out of retirement

6. Got Clippers to cut Cassell so he could help back up Rondo

7. Drafted 4 serviceable bigs late in the draft in Davis, Powe, Perkins, and Gomes.

8. Won a freaking championship by beating the Lakers in only 5 games with the decideing game being the biggest blow out in NBA Finals history.

And you give the guy no credit ?

I hate to hear your feelings on other GMs.

The truth is that Ainge pushed the button on all of these deals to win RIGHT NOW and they did....so he deserves all the credit in the world for what a GM is responsible for.

Now I will let you go back to weeping in your Kobe Bryant jersey. See you at the next Lakers / Hawks game with all the other Laker "celebrity want to be" fans.

i don't mean to sound like as big of a d*ck as i do, but yes, i am bitter. no, i don't like the lakers, just the hawks. this series was like watching a red sox/yankees series. i just wish there was a way they both could lose.

i guess i'm bitter because ainge was able to pull off the #1 and 2 deals above that would've been rejected in any and every fantasy league. i know this isn't fantasy, and it is a lot about "who you know" but i honestly don't care for such majorly lopsided deals like that that is all about who you're buddies are. i'll give you #7, but none of the other things would've happened if it wasn't for "who he knows". i would have to believe that surely some other teams could've offered something better for kg, but it just seemed like even if anyone had, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. i suppose if it was the hawks making these kinds of lopsided deals, instead of the top major market teams, i'd be a hypocrite about it, but they're not.

unfortunately, this is only one of the things that has made me feel more and more jaded towards the nba, and adding to my waning interest in it. i hate it, but i honestly don't feel that teams like the hawks get a fair shake. not that they don't have a chance to win it all, just that they have to work 100 times harder to get there. (good luck with that while asg is involved)

what do i know, though. i'm just some scrub that can't even make it to the games anymore. take it with a grain of salt, but i just had to throw my 2 cents in.

[dlpin]

Im sorry, but just read what others have posted here: it wasnt nearly as lopsided as you make it out to be (fantasy leagues be damned, as they dont care about cap relief or draft picks). In fact, out of all the "superstar" trades that have been done before, these were probably the fairest ones around. Go back one year and most people actually thought that the Allen trade was bad for the celtics, giving up cap flexibility, a serviceable back up (who ended up a starter on a playoff team) and a #5 pick for a guy making 17 million for another couple of years, way past his prime and with two surgically repaired ankles. Even the KG deal celtics fans werent so sure about. To get KG, the celtics gave up one of the bigs with the most upside in the league (then 22 year old Al Jefferson, who is just one year older than Horford), a cheap and young back up who averages 11-6 for his career, 2 1st round picks, one of them in all likelihood a high lottery pick and a ton of cap relief.

Compare that to any other trade that involved an all star:

Carter- 3 nobodies and 2 non lottery 1st round picks

AI- best comparison, as a former MVP who is about the same age as KG- Andre Miller (overpaid and considered old and washed up before his ressurgence with the 76rs), joe smith (old and overpaid), 2 non lottery draft picks

Gasol- bunch of nobodies and 2 very late first round picks

Shaq (LA to Miami)- one guy with potential (butler), one decent starter who never did anything (odom), an expensive contract and one non lottery draft pick.

Of all of these, Boston certainly gave up the most for its superstar. Much more than denver and miami did, anyways.

And keep in mind that Boston's wasnt the first, 2nd, or even 3rd proposal McHale entertained.

The Suns refused to give up Amare, and several 3 way trades were considered (one with the hawks, eventually rejected as the Suns did not want to part with Amare again)/

Then dallas came along, but without including nowitzki, they simply didnt have anything worthwhile. Lakers wanted him, but wanted to dump Odom in the process (too expensive) and were unwilling to include Bynum. Only then did the celtics made the trade.

[Plastic Man]

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Some people will just hate no matter what.

True. Everyone who has a different opinion than you is definitely a hater.

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Unless a story breaks about Stern mandating trades for certain players between certain teams

I would not be shocked. Stern IS still the puppetmaster.

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If this hadn't worked and the C's had a 2nd round exit then Ainge would certainly be catching all kinds of heat for mortgaging the future away and not getting results. Why are we then so reluctant to credit him for a well-laid and well-executed plan?

Because when you start 3 all-stars in the East, you SHOULD come out on top.

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I am almost as impressed about the pieces he built around the Big 3 with as I am with the triad itself.

This has more to do with KG than Ainge. Who, in the decline of their NBA career, wouldn't want to go play with KG in the East?

[dlpin]

Oh, and I had forgotten about rondo being originally a Sun... 2/5 of the starting team and the mind behind the Celtics defense could have been members of the Suns, but they decided to keep Amare and D'antoni happy...

[DJlaysitup]

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Oh, and I had forgotten about rondo...

Flockin Rondo....AHF has to be Dancin on the Ceiling !! UK fella done good.