From your posts, that's been the only logical conclusion, quite honestly. I just don't understand why people were so willing to trade a guy like Rondo for, wait, what did we get for him again? Oh right - nothing. Unbelievable.
You mean the guy that couldn't average 10 ppg on a team where the top scorer is Jeff Green? What did you think he was worth, again?
They're living in the past. Too caught up in Rondo's performances from 2012 and older to pay any attention to his actual impact, or lack thereof, on the game now.
Beat LA, you constantly harp on the return being "nothing", but isn't that actually an indictment on Rondo? Ainge scoured the league and the "nothing" package you moan about is the absolute best he could get back. That says much more about Rondo's current status as a player, then it does about Ainge as a GM. If only Rondo were regarded as a better player, say a top 30 guy like you often claim, then surely the return would've been better. Would it not?
Nope. I'm sorry, but this is all about Ainge to me, because for those of you who believe that Danny is such a great gm and that he was responsible for extending the window of the then-Big Three, the guy that you should be praising for our extended run is Rondo. Say what you will for the guy, but if he hadn't grown into the player that he is today (and yes, I can hear all of you saying, "what, you mean a grossly overrated role player?"), we would not have achieved anywhere near the success that we did even as the Big Three aged. It was Rondo who still made them look like world beaters. It was Rondo who made their jobs so much easier when they could no longer consistently create their own offense, and it was Rondo who became our most indispensable player once Garnett got injured. Ainge had plenty of chances to rebuild and retool on the fly, and he failed at each and every opportunity to give us a much better transition from one era to the next without all of this mess. It never should have come to this. Do you think that Ainge would have been able to get what he did (which I will always hate as a transaction just as much as this most recent one. I don't care how many picks he got for them - those guys are legends, for which you never get equal value. I'd feel perhaps somewhat better about those draft choices if Ainge could actually select good players, but he only serves to compound his mistake in this regard, imo.) for KG and Pierce if they had been playing with Deron Williams? Right. Do you think that Avery Bradley would have gotten anywhere near that turd of a contract had he not played with Rondo? Right.
I know that Rondo might not have had the best defense this year, but Bradley hasn't been a shining star, either, and I think that a lot of that has to do with the fact that Garnett is no longer quarterbacking our defense. KG made a 36 year old Ray Allen with bone spurs still look like a competent defensive player, for crying out loud, and that's really the point of all of this - those guys not only fit so well together, but they also made each other better players. Danny had his chances, and he blew it. Year after year after year. The transition should have been a lot smoother, imo.
Whose front office traded for the necessary pick to select Rajon Rondo in the early 20s? Danny Ainge's.
So long as we're using hindsight, Danny Ainge offered the best package for Chris Paul only to be rejected and had David West slip through his fingers. As someone's sig around here says, imagine if the stars had aligned...
They may or may not win a championship.....
Well, we know for sure that we didn't win a championship with Rondo as the best player on the team. Maybe is better than definitely not.
Also, why isn't some of this criticism directed at Doc Rivers, who failed to get anything out of Courtney Lee and Jason Terry (and for some time, Jeff Green)?
You should have been here at least 2 years ago, lol. Trust me, it was covered, to say the least. Doc was a master motivator and great at drawing up plays out of timeouts (most of the time. Eventually, he just started using the same 2/3 pick and roll with a flare screen for Ray every single time, even though everyone had figured out how to stop it. Ugh.), but he wasn't a great coach, to me. His unwillingness to play the young guys, while always favoring veterans, and his severe lack of knowledge regarding half court offense (did we even have one?) were on KC Jones levels, and he never changed his style of play in order to get the most out of guys like Jason Terry, who was a massive turd, but still. Guys had to play his 'system,' which was prone to terrible turnover numbers, and he couldn't make adjustments.
