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."
I guess Danny should have done a better job getting something for Ray the first time around. Or are you saying he should have kept Ray, and not offer him up for a younger player who's having a career year this year (Mayo)?
Signed Darko who clearly wanted no part of Doc and Doc wanted no part of him.
Yeah, offering a minimum contract to a 7-foot free agent was a huge mistake.
Drafted one player with a back problem. A back problem. Find one, One athlete with back issues that ever really recovers.
I bet he should have taken Perry Jones, right?
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'm actually with you on this one.
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.
I like this line of reasoning. Ainge cobbles together a sign-and-trade for Lee by using a bunch of spare parts, which allows him to sign one of the top SG free agents of last summer to a MLE deal. He also manages to sign Barbosa to a minimum level contract, and then turns that contract and another min level contract in Collins to nab a young gunner on a rookie contract in a trade that virtually every media outlet I've read at the deadline has called an absolute heist. So, instead of applauding Ainge's resourcefulness in turning lemons into lemonade, blame him for Terry's performance so far.
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.
Could not have kept Stiemsma. Wolves offered him a contract that Ainge could not match, by CBA rules.
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.
I think you're alone on that island. I'll take Lee over Moore and a pick in the 30s in this coming draft. Heck, if it really matters, Ainge can buy a 2nd rounder.
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'm with you on this one. Green is overpaid.
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.
I haven't looked at the schedule, but I don't think we play the Lakers again anytime soon. What's wrong with cast-offs? PJ Brown was a cast-off. I won't blame Ainge for not bringing in some big man help until he doesn't bring in big man help.
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.
The litany of the "TANK NOW!" congregation. I'm not in the least interested in becoming Sacramento, Charlotte, or any of the other inept franchises that, year after year, circle Secaucus on their calendars, and pray for ping-pong balls.
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.
Two words: global warming. It's coming, and Boston is going to reap the benefits in free agency. By the way, cap room isn't just for signing free agents. (No one seems to remember this, I don't know why.)
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.
Can't wait. I look forward to continued relevance in the NBA, watching Hall of Famers playing Celtic basketball. Who knows? Maybe Ainge breaks my heart at next year's trade deadline, trading the hated Green, Lee, and Bass for expiring contracts, Rondo for 1st rounders, and watching Pierce and Garnett's last season spent missing the playoffs and getting a lottery pick.
Until that happens, I won't blame Ainge for something he hasn't done. And as of right now, I'm not going to blame him for extending a three-year window for another three years. This last half decade has been more than I could have asked for as a Celtic fan.