Name some players Ainge was "high on" in drafts past

[KG Living Legend]

 After reading about the Trailblazers trading for Noah Vonleh because they were high on him last year.
  I was wondering about other guys that Ainge was interested in our high on that haven't quite hit their stride yet.

 Robert Swift?  How's he looking now? Ben McLemore? Was that an Ainge guy.

[KG Living Legend]

How about Aaron Gordon I believe I heard Ainge liked him despite his shooting%

[Quetzalcoatl]

Rondo - I knew about him for a year before the draft because Danny was so infatuated with him and ended up buying a pick to get him

[KG Living Legend]

Yeah, I mean Smart and Rozier for sure too. Ideally looking for some trade targets but looking at previous drafts not seeing anyone.

[erisred]

Amir Johnson. Danny wanted him, but he'd made a promise to take Greene with that pick.

[Eja117]

Greg Oden

[KG Living Legend]

 Oh God, Eja I just puked. Oden. Please no.

[Smartacus]

Hmmm seemed like we led the hype train on Luke Babbit who has spent time in and out of the league and is currently on New Orleans. I remember he shot up boards after the rumor that we were high on him came out.

According to Danny he was Durant > Oden.

Its tough to say because Danny likes to keep people guessing about the draft. He was rumored to be high on Austin Rivers but that was probably more of a favor to Doc to drive up Austin's stock. He was rumored to be high on Sam Dekker recently but went with Terry Rozier instead.

Apparently he really coveted Marcus Smart according to recent interviews even before it was clear he was the BPA for our draft spot. Danny had apparently been scouting him for years prior to drafting him.

Isaiah Thomas definetly counts as an Ainge guy since he called him at midnight the first night of free agency, although not sure if was high on him coming out of the draft t since IT was essentially undrafted.

[PhoSita]

Harrison Barnes, Tyreke Evans, Aaron Gordon, Justise Winslow, Joel Embiid.

[KG Living Legend]

Out of this list Phosita, who's the most easily attained. Gordon?

[BitterJim]

Greg Oden

Hasn't he said multiple times that he would have taken Durant if he got the first pick?

[MJohnnyboy]

Robert Swift. Think of all that would have happened had Danny taken him

-Danny was so in love with Swift in the 2004 draft that he tried everything in his power to trade up to get him. Heck if Swift had been available, Danny would have taken him over Big Al. Drafting Swift meant no Al Jefferson which meant no KG trade which meant no Big Three and no Banner 17. Wow. A whole era would have never existed had Danny taken one irrelevant and injury-prone scrub, but it didn't end there.

-When Danny was making the Ray deal, he asked for Seattle to include Robert Swift in the package. Seattle told him the Celtics had to include Rondo to get Swift, but Danny declined. Trading Rondo meant the Celtics were going to start 2008 with either Bassy Telfair or Delonte West as the point guard. Would they have won in 2008 with West/Telfair? Possibly. Rondo was a role player at the time. Point is the Big 3 era would not have lasted nearly as long with Telfair/West instead of Rondo (To this day I'm still baffled McHale didn't ask for Rondo in the KG deal). Not to mention, what if the Thunder saw Rondo as their point guard of the future and used their pick on Kevin Love instead of Westbrook? Wow, the possibilities...

Robert Swift may be gone and long-forgotten from the league, but he'll always be remembered by us Celtics fans because we'll always think, "Thank goodness we didn't get that guy" when we hear his name.

On a sidenote, wasn't Robert Swift on the Celtics summer league team in 2009 or something?

[saltlover]

I knew Danny was high on Smart when he said this about him after the combine:

I want passion. I got myself in trouble a few times on the court. I don’t worry too much. I’d much rather try to calm a player down than try to light a fire under somebody. I’m a big fan of passionate players.

I'm sure that's one reason he liked Winslow so much -- definitely played with that fire in the tournament and rose to the occasion.  I think that's why he put up with Rondo so much -- unfortunately he seemed to lose that fire the last couple years.

I also think that's partly why he tends to lean towards guards and wings -- it's a lot easy to look scrappy when you're smaller than others but faster than others.

[Smartacus]

Robert Swift. Think of all that would have happened had Danny taken him

-Danny was so in love with Swift in the 2004 draft that he tried everything in his power to trade up to get him. Heck if Swift had been available, Danny would have taken him over Big Al. Drafting Swift meant no Al Jefferson which meant no KG trade which meant no Big Three and no Banner 17. Wow. A whole era would have never existed had Danny taken one irrelevant and injury-prone scrub, but it didn't end there.

-When Danny was making the Ray deal, he asked for Seattle to include Robert Swift in the package. Seattle told him the Celtics had to include Rondo to get Swift, but Danny declined. Trading Rondo meant the Celtics were going to start 2008 with either Bassy Telfair or Delonte West as the point guard. Would they have won in 2008 with West/Telfair? Possibly. Rondo was a role player at the time. Point is the Big 3 era would not have lasted nearly as long with Telfair/West instead of Rondo (To this day I'm still baffled McHale didn't ask for Rondo in the KG deal). Not to mention, what if the Thunder saw Rondo as their point guard of the future and used their pick on Kevin Love instead of Westbrook? Wow, the possibilities...

Robert Swift may be gone and long-forgotten from the league, but he'll always be remembered by us Celtics fans because we'll always think, "Thank goodness we didn't get that guy" when we hear his name.

On a sidenote, wasn't Robert Swift on the Celtics summer league team in 2009 or something?

http://www.celticslife.com/2011/07/celtics-interested-in-robert-swift.html

You may well remember Danny's love for Swift in the past. In fact, he preferred him to Al Jefferson, but finally Seattle drafted the once red haired talent in the 2004 draft. He played for the Sonics and then the Thunder until 2009. Ainge, still intrigued by the 7-1 ft man, brought him to the Celtics summer league once his rookie contract expired with the Thunder but he finally didn't make the team. He has played in the NBDL and was last spotted wearing pseudo Lakers purple in Japan.

That was just about my first year following basketball, remember thinking who's that huge guy and why isn't he getting more minutes, it was a sobering moment when my buddy told me about his drug addictions.

Last we heard of Robert Swift...
http://deadspin.com/robert-swift-arrested-for-armed-robbery-report-1678434155

According to sources, the 7-foot-1 former NBA basketball player and 28-year-old Carlos Abraham Anderson of Everett put masks over their faces and attempted to rob a home in broad daylight. Witnesses notified the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.

“I believe there were a couple of people who called in, they saw masked subjects on the property, reported that at least one of them was armed with a weapon, one possibly with a baseball bat,” Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Shari Ireton told KIRO 7. “It appeared they were either trying to make an entry or knocking on the door.”

[Maurice98]

MKG, Nerlens Noel and Jabari Parker.