Uh-oh!!
I see a return of one last offseason's most heated thread topics!!
Danny Ainge got lucky vs Danny Ainge is a genius who planned this the whole way through.
I was not trying to start that debate.
I was trying to say that all good GMs have a combination of luck and skill because of this comment
I kinda just think the SA guy was smart not to bring back David Robinson when he was healthy, lucky to get Duncan, and lucky Tony Parker slipped to where he did in the draft. Other than that i guess he's pretty good.
Basically, he drafted two all-stars (Parker and Manu) that every other team passed over.
He has found the best teammates to surround his best player (that the team lucked into)
being a good GM is as much about luck as it is about skills.
Ainge was lucky that two 30+ stars on bad teams came available at the perfect time for the Celtics (when they had a top draft pick, a young stud in Jefferson and two short term large money contracts) Ainge did a good job gathering those pieces, but had luck in terms of the other teams.
So I am in no way diminishing what Ainge did this past season. As I said on the 2nd post
He was the best GM in the NBA last year.
So I am in no way trying to restart such a discussion.
Oh I wasn't saying you were, all I was saying is that I could see it going that way.
I happen to think you're 100% correct and that the luck/talent argument is very much a what came first the chicken or the egg argument.
You need to have luck to put yourself into a position to use your talent and you have to have talent to recognize that luck and take advantage of it.
Danny was and continues to be both. He had the talent to draft young talent and then the talent to know who would be best suited to teach and coach and develop that talent and hire them.
He was lucky because so many teams passed on that talent and because the man he wanted to coach and develop the talent was available.
He was talented enough to recognize the dynamic that bringing in a KG and RA would be like. He was talented enough to get the deals done and he was lucky in that circumstances at both those teams made superstars of the caliber available.
But I digress.
What I was trying to say is that the convo seemed to be going in the same general direction as those threads last summer and I could see it going that way again.
Danny had some luck and he has a abundance of skill and saying that he had luck in no way diminishes what Danny did last year. I personally can't see how any of the work put in in this franchise last year wasn't anything but sterling. From Danny to Doc to the assistant coaches to the trainers to the players, everyone was outstanding. Everyone. And the team was kinda lucky as well. Little to no injuries. No major season ending injuries. The availability of Brown and Cassell. Etc. etc.
Sorry wd, next time I will try to be clearer. Besides if you did bring back that argument, that's not really a bad thing. They were actually very entertaining threads last offseason and I enjoyed them tremendously