What is the reputation of Danny Ainge?
In Boston, right now, it's a guy who is a good general manager but one who hasn't properly built a team around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Nationally, he's viewed a really good general manager who has built a NBA championship-winning team and had Conference Finals appearances in three of the last four years.
In a group text with some friends back in the Chicago area, they said they see Ainge as a Top 10 general manager. I asked my friend "Based on what? Since the Tatum draft, he's really been average to bad."
My friend, a Bulls fan, could not believe that I was down on Ainge as the man leading basketball operation for the Celtics. He, of course, knew of the Celtics big picture accomplishments over the past five years. But the list of mistakes he's made over the years since hitting on Tatum and Brown is startling.
We all know how damn good the 2018-19 Celtics were on paper. That team never met its potential. Then it came time to replace Kyrie Irving.
Mistake No. 1: Signing Kemba Walker. How about a guy with an arthritic knee, Walker, who's former team chose to pay a nine-figure salary to Gordon Hayward? That's a big miss. The guy can't play in back to back games and is due nearly $74 million over the next two seasons.
Mistake No. 2: Letting Gordon Hayward walk for the TPE. This might be Ainge's worst move in recent seasons. Gary Washburn reported Indiana offered Myles Turner and Doug McDermott in exchange for Hayward via sign and trade. Ainge wanted Victor Oladipo or TJ Warren AND Myles Turner in this potential trade. It was a massive overplay by Danny who lost the asset for nothing. Turner and McDermott would be useful on this team.
Mistake No. 3: The 2019 NBA Draft. Romeo Langford, Carsen Edwards, Grant Williams, Tremont Waters. That's how Danny spent his four top 51 picks in the draft after being on record multiple times that he did NOT want four rookies to be added to the roster for 2019-20. He did just that and none of these guys besides Grant have proven worthy of being a rotation player.
Langford was selected with the highly talked about Sacramento Kings pick. You know, the one Ainge floated in trade talks for years and never used.
Mistake No. 4: The 2020 NBA Draft. Per usual with Celtics and trades, Boston was looking to move up in the draft by packaging its picks. There was talk of Ainge once again shipping the first round pick, No. 14 overall, but Ainge fell in love with Aaron Nesmith. The trade up for a legitimate prospect or for a veteran was the move to be made.
Mistake No. 5: Desmond Bane and Enes Kanter trade. Bane was selected 30th overall by Boston and is currently shooting 45 percent from deep for the Memphis Grizzlies. He was moved by Ainge as part of a three-team trade to dump Kanter. Bane might be the Celtics best draft pick since 2018 and he is not even on the roster. Kanter is averaging 16.3 ppg and 15.8 rebound per 36 minutes of play.
For context, Robert Williams is averaging 16 points and 13.3 boards per game per 36 minutes. Kanter is shooting a career high 60 percent and has been a huge addition for the Trail Blazers.
Mistake No. 6: Tristan Thompson. Paul Millsap, an objectively better player, was interested in coming to Boston under the same salary structure (full mid-level exception). By using this cap exception, the Celtics immediately became hard capped for 2020-21. Thompson has been disappointing in Year 1.
Mistake No. 7: Would not budge on trading Marcus Smart. There are only two untouchables on the Celtics roster in the minds of most people, Tatum and Brown. Ainge essentially confirmed there are now three after reportedly refusing to trade Smart at the deadline in any package and telling the player he was going nowhere.
Only with Ainge is a player who will never make an All-Star game considered an untouchable player. I don't think moving Smart for Aaron Gordon would have been the best move. I would have rather used him in a potential package for Nikola Vucevic. Smart is going nowhere which is odd considering the Celtics future cap situation in the future.
Mistake No. 8: Jeff Teague. He was just OK in Minnesota and dropped off in his final 20-plus games of the season after the trade to Atlanta. Boston only signed him to a minimum salary so this is no huge miss.
The whole point of this writing is to highlight Ainge's recent mistakes and lack of success. I am absolutely concerned that Danny is the right guy to build this team going forward.
Other NBA markets would probably love to have Ainge, but they aren't familiar with the recent track record. It's ugly and part of the reason Boston is where it is right now at 25-25 and seventh in the Eastern Conference.
Danny loves to tell people how many Conference Finals appearances they've had in the past four years. Sure, they've won a ton of regular season games too. He deserves credit for that.
But we aren't living in 2008 or 2018. This is 2021 and the Celtics are going nowhere fast.
The trade deadline has come and gone with opportunities to improve the team now waiting until the offseason. Boston still owns a chunk of the traded player exception leftover from Hayward sign & trade.
Ainge needs to make a blockbuster move this summer. He's due.
