Ainge got hired in 2003 and in his first draft his first rounders were Troy Bell and Dahntay Jones, whom he traded to Memphis for Marcus Banks. Not a good first round draft but it was his first year here so I'll cut him some slack. After that draft here's what he's done in the first round:
2004: Al Jefferson, Delonte West, Tony Allen
2005: Gerald Green
2006: Randy Foye, traded to Minnesota in deal to acquire Rondo
2007: Jeff Green, traded to Seattle to acquire Ray Allen
2008: J.R. Giddens
2009: No picks
2010: Avery Bradley
2011: MarShon Brooks, traded to New Jersey to acquire JJJ
JJJ has not had the opportunity to prove himself yet so it's hard to judge that pick. The only picks that did not provide our team or another team with any valuable production were J.R. Giddens and Gerald Green. And to be fair, J.R. Giddens was drafted at #30 the year after we won the title. Drafting successfully at #30 is like a crap shoot. Every other first round pick was #25 or better. I'm not a huge fan of our first round picks this year just because both of them are gambles. I would have liked to use one of the picks on a safer option. However, you can't deny Danny has drafted relatively successfully so I'm optimistic about the picks in a sense. It'll be fun to watch Sullinger and Melo develop, hopefully.
