Explain how Danny stays employed after this season?

[BballTim]

Shooter, yes, scorer I dunno.  PP has passed him up.

Passing and rebounding wise Bird has clear edge.

Danny will be fine, I don't see him leaving.

  PP put up a lot of points on bad teams. He'd have scored fewer points with better teammates (like Bird had).

[mctyson]

I think the cliche is...TLDR?

[Greenback]

Mistakes were made.  Jerry West once said that its not the GMs that make the difference - its the owners.  I don't know how much he is right or wrong.

I was worried when I seen Sully, with his bad back, taking all those charges (for offensive fouls) like Big Baby and Posey used to do.  Not wise.

The Celtics could have traded their beloved Rondo for a half decent center.  There would be plenty of guards left over.

I think the Celtics love small ball because good centers are very expensive.  Is that an owner thing?

[Onslaught]

Shooter, yes, scorer I dunno.  PP has passed him up.

Passing and rebounding wise Bird has clear edge.

Danny will be fine, I don't see him leaving.

It took Paul longer to get there then Bird. And Bird played for less years.

[Cman]

So I read the first line of your post, and skipped the rest. Don't want to waste my time with a lot of nonsense.

How so? Or are you just a a typical Kool-Aid drinker? Make one counter point. One. Of course I am sure it will be nonsense so I will not waste my time. So do not bother.

The issue is that you are pretty off base on many of the points you list above.
Just to highlight a few:
1. Ray Allen. Danny tried to resign him, offered more than the Heat (much more according to some). Ray just didn't want to come back. Should he have anticipated this? Yes, and.... he did, which is why he tried to trade him last year.
2. Steemer. Danny could have kept him if he offered the MLE. Nothing less. Is Steemer worth the MLE and no Terry? In retrospect, maybe. But that's hindsight and only bc Terry hasn't panned out. Nothing to do with Steemer.
3. "A big". Is Danny supposed to trade for a big "no matter what" just bc we need a big? No. It depends on the cost of obtaining the big. Still not satisfied? Then wait a week. I guarantee there'll be a bench warming big on the bench.
4. Trading PP and KG. I'm with you that it's better to trade them than ride out the nostalgia... to a point. There are still opptys to trade- think draft night- and the pickings might be richer (J Smith was really only big name on the block; could be more/bigger names in late June).

OK, now we are having a discussion. My issues are with Danny's choices this year. As I pointed out, I think Allen was angered by the way his trade to Memphis nearly went down. That in my mind helped him decide to bolt. Regarding Terry and Steemer, fine point. I just worried from the beginning that paying Terry that much when he really was looking slow towards the end of the year made me very nervous.

Look, I love the Celtics. I have loved them since the early 80's living in Greece for crying out loud. I have never touched drugs because it scared me to death when Len Bias died. Stayed a fan while Gaston tried to rob the team blind with the Vin Baker trade. I just think you can give your team heat and still love them all the same. Am I wrong?

I agree. It is healthy to criticize. We don't have to have blind love or loyalty. But I don't think you can judge a gm based off of one year, it needs to be off the complete body of work. Even I've focus on one year alone, I don't think Ainge has done as badly as you think.

[pearljammer10]

So I read the first line of your post, and skipped the rest. Don't want to waste my time with a lot of nonsense.

Yeah I'm with you here. Danny had a very active offseason and made some great moves. Green at 9 mil may have seemed like a bit much at the beginning of the season but he's averaging 15 points of the bench in the last 13 games and is really coming around to the player he was on the thunder. When Pierce retires I think he'll be a steal at 9 mil a season.

Lee and terry are both worth their deals. Sully was a great pick having him fall to 21. What other center or player at Melos spot in the draft could we have picked that would have given a more immediate impact?

Danny is one of the best GMs in the game. This thread is ridiculous.

[BballTim]

So I read the first line of your post, and skipped the rest. Don't want to waste my time with a lot of nonsense.

How so? Or are you just a a typical Kool-Aid drinker? Make one counter point. One. Of course I am sure it will be nonsense so I will not waste my time. So do not bother.

The issue is that you are pretty off base on many of the points you list above.
Just to highlight a few:
1. Ray Allen. Danny tried to resign him, offered more than the Heat (much more according to some). Ray just didn't want to come back. Should he have anticipated this? Yes, and.... he did, which is why he tried to trade him last year.
2. Steemer. Danny could have kept him if he offered the MLE. Nothing less. Is Steemer worth the MLE and no Terry? In retrospect, maybe. But that's hindsight and only bc Terry hasn't panned out. Nothing to do with Steemer.
3. "A big". Is Danny supposed to trade for a big "no matter what" just bc we need a big? No. It depends on the cost of obtaining the big. Still not satisfied? Then wait a week. I guarantee there'll be a bench warming big on the bench.
4. Trading PP and KG. I'm with you that it's better to trade them than ride out the nostalgia... to a point. There are still opptys to trade- think draft night- and the pickings might be richer (J Smith was really only big name on the block; could be more/bigger names in late June).

OK, now we are having a discussion. My issues are with Danny's choices this year. As I pointed out, I think Allen was angered by the way his trade to Memphis nearly went down. That in my mind helped him decide to bolt.

  Did you listen to Doc talking about Ray after he left? *Everything* angered Ray.

[Fafnir]

So I read the first line of your post, and skipped the rest. Don't want to waste my time with a lot of nonsense.

Yeah I'm with you here. Danny had a very active offseason and made some great moves. Green at 9 mil may have seemed like a bit much at the beginning of the season but he's averaging 15 points of the bench in the last 13 games and is really coming around to the player he was on the thunder. When Pierce retires I think he'll be a steal at 9 mil a season.

Lee and terry are both worth their deals. Sully was a great pick having him fall to 21. What other center or player at Melos spot in the draft could we have picked that would have given a more immediate impact?

Danny is one of the best GMs in the game. This thread is ridiculous.

Festus Ezeli

He's been solid defensively in a low minute backup C role. I don't blame Ainge for not picking him, not really. They were planning on having Sullinger play minutes this year, the other big man they took made sense to go for whomever they though had the most potential.

[Roy H.]

This last year he has made zero decent moves. Not one. Let's recap in no real order:

Let Ray Allen not only leave for nothing in return, but go to the team that will most likely win the title this year. a team in our own conference. This because Danny told Ray was gone before getting the deal locked down, thus angering Ray, particularly when the deal fell apart and they had to walk the whole thing back. Imagine your boss says: "You're fired, you're fired for a guy who may or may not be better than you. Oh wait, the guy does not want to work here. Nevermind, get back to work."

Are you criticizing Danny for trying to trade Ray Allen, or because the trade fell apart? 

Danny made a good faith effort to re-sign Ray this off-season.  The damage had already been done by that point, but my guess is that a lot of Danny Ainge critics are upset that he didn't blow the team up.  The Ray Allen trade talks were the first step in doing that.

Signed Darko who clearly wanted no part of Doc and Doc wanted no part of him.

He signed him to a minimum contract, after signing other competent big man options (KG, Bass, Wilcox, Collins.

Drafted one player with a back problem. A back problem. Find one, One athlete with back issues that ever really recovers.

Who did you prefer over Sully?  He appears to have the ability to be a legitimate rotation player.

Drafts another player that will not contribute for at least another two years if ever. The team already makes fun of what a ding bat this guy is. Publicly. Makes me really confident.

I don't like the Melo pick.  At the same time, Danny needs to think about the future, and if he thinks Melo can become a rotation-caliber center, that's worth taking a chance on.

Signed Jason Terry who either does not fit in or who aged twenty years in the off season. If Terry could do his job, score, we would not have needed to trade for Jordan Crawford after Barbosa, who also would not have played if Terry could score anymore, went down. Think about it.

Terry has looked okay recently, and his play has nothing to do with the need for another guard.

Let Greg Stiemsma go when we really could have used him and kept him had we cared. He has been better than Darko and Collins while playing for the Wolves.

We couldn't afford Stiemer unless we were giving him a big chunk of our MLE.

Traded too much and then paid too much for Courtney Lee. Now in fairness Lee has finally started to show a pulse but we gave up too much for him. E'Twaun Moore has been just as good for millions less and we lost the Charlotte Bobcats first pick in the second round of this upcoming draft, which right now would be the 31st pick. Now this upcoming draft does not have any real stars but by all accounts it is deep. I would much rather have had Moore and that pick than Lee overpaid at 5 million per year for another four years.

The 31st pick in the draft is a pretty small price to play for a good rotation player.  Lee is much, much better than Moore.

Signed Jeff Green for nine million dollars a year for four years. I do not need to even go into this. everybody on this board and everybody in the NBA knows two things about that deal. One, the Celtics were bidding against nobody. Two, that Green was the most obscenely overpaid player in the off season. Think I am exaggerating? Garnett makes an average of 11.5 million per season over the term of his deal. Green makes nine. With an extra year. Nuff said.

I didn't like the contract, either.  However, we have no idea what the market was.  Because of the new CBA, we couldn't sign-and-trade Green, so the options were to pay him, or let him go for nothing.

Went through the trade deadline when we desperately needed big men and came away with Jordan Crawford. Now on the face of it, I like getting Crawford for nothing. He can flat out score and is dirt cheap. However, we have one center, KG and two power forwards, Bass and Wilcox. You know how many points we gave up in the paint against the Lakers the other night? Fifty four. Think that is going stop? Not real likely. So now we will use cast-offs to keep Wilcox and KG from burning out down the stretch. Great plan.

What trade for a big man would you have made?

Danny's failings this year have effectively doomed us to be mediocre this year and next. Staying around .500, not getting a decent draft pick, never getting much better because we are capped out until 2015. Plus who has faith we can get a top flight free agent to sign here? Not one ever has. Now this year not being in the lottery is not a big deal. There are no real team changing players and picking at 18 or 19 which where we will most likely end up may not be much different than picking at 9 or 10. 2014's draft however is another case altogether. That draft is loaded. People think as good as 2003's draft. Being in the top 5 picks could change the franchise. Instead, Pierce and KG will be here for at least part of the year, keeping this team around .500 and out of the lottery. Keeping us in middle-of-the-road purgatory.

Being a team that stays in the middle, year after year, dooms a franchise. Nine times out of ten, you have crater to get back up. The only teams this is not the case for is Miami and L.A..They are attractive destinations for players so their ability to get free agents allows them to as the saying goes "reload" rather than "rebuild". This team won the '08 title by being bad, compiling draft picks, making good choices with those picks and then trading those picks for established stars. Danny has had a decent record drafting. This year he blew it. I must admit I still have faith he can draft well again. Too bad he will not have that 31st pick as well as our first rounder to prove it.

Now I get that for the sake of tradition and respect, letting KG and Pierce ride off together is a nice thought and may help the Celtics getting players down the line. They might look at that and say "that franchise is good to their guys, that means something to me." I hope they think that, but I doubt they will. They will look at the weather, the taxes and the lack of off-the-court fun to be had in New England and say "Miami, Dallas, L.A., OK. No way will I go to Boston." Sure Doc may help of course but I still think we are behind Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and NYC for free agents no matter how honorable we end up being to KG and Paul.

So barring a miracle, it will have been five years since we last won a title, three since we have been to the finals at the end of this season. Yes. That long. Happy we held on to KG and Pierce now? Happy we have Lee, Terry and Green on the books for combined twenty million for the next three years? Nope, did not think so. Hope you like average, Boston fans. You are going to see a whole lot of it until 2016.

Danny attempted to rebuild; KG said he would veto, and Pierce had very little trade value.  Danny also attempted to reload, and again, didn't have the assets. 

[Redz]

The main reason Danny stays employed (and ultimately most important) is that the ownership love and trust Danny.  All other opinions are moot.

[CelticG1]

Shooter, yes, scorer I dunno.  PP has passed him up.

Passing and rebounding wise Bird has clear edge.

Danny will be fine, I don't see him leaving.

  PP put up a lot of points on bad teams. He'd have scored fewer points with better teammates (like Bird had).

Not arguing against Bird but did Pierce really put up a ton of points on bad teams? Seems like he put up a lot on some decent teams before the big 3.

Hes scored over 2000 in 4 seasons. 2 of those didnt make the playoffs 1 made ecf and 1 ecsf.

When the big 3 came he was 30, arguably on the decline and averaged, 19, 20, 18, 19, 19, 18 over the past six years. Im thinking in his prime he would have scored more considering he at least would have been playing 5 more min a game as well.

Also dont forget teams scored more back then. For example the 86 Celtics averaged 104.7 ppg while in comparison the 08 Celts averaged 90.3 ppg.

[eugen]

I have a simple question: Is DA doing a good job?

[Roy H.]

I have a simple question: Is DA doing a good job?

I'd say yes, for the most part.  Sometimes a solid game plan doesn't work out.

[Fafnir]

I have a simple question: Is DA doing a good job?

I'd say yes, for the most part.  Sometimes a solid game plan doesn't work out.

ACLs don't care about your plans, no matter how well laid.

The Bulls fate showed us that last year afterall. Pretty similar if later occurance then what happened to the C's. Lost their PG and then a key big man. (two actually I think Gibson was hobbled too though he played)

[BleedGreen1989]

So I read the first line of your post, and skipped the rest. Don't want to waste my time with a lot of nonsense.

Yeah I'm with you here. Danny had a very active offseason and made some great moves. Green at 9 mil may have seemed like a bit much at the beginning of the season but he's averaging 15 points of the bench in the last 13 games and is really coming around to the player he was on the thunder. When Pierce retires I think he'll be a steal at 9 mil a season.

Lee and terry are both worth their deals. Sully was a great pick having him fall to 21. What other center or player at Melos spot in the draft could we have picked that would have given a more immediate impact?

Danny is one of the best GMs in the game. This thread is ridiculous.

TP completely agree