Danny Ainge, the Director of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, is doing a tango. And it’s not looking pretty. After trading Antoine Walker to the Miami Heat on August 2nd, part of a 5-team mega deal involving 13 players, Ainge sent a message to his program: we’re getting younger. Except, the same message was delivered last year and the year before, and so far the only real big name to have moved is Walker–twice.“We received future flexibility,” said Ainge after the deal was made on Tuesday, “as well as freeing up playing time for some of the young players on our roster that we are very excited about.”
Here’s Ainge’s statement after trading Walker to Dallas for Raef LaFrentz, Jiri Welsch, and Chris Mills in 2004: “We are getting quality players. We also would not have done this deal if Jiri was not included. He’s a very promising 6-7 combo guard. We are very high on him.”
And lastly, this is Ainge’s comment after reacquiring Walker from the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline last season: “Times are different now. The biggest thing [when I traded Walker to Dallas] was I felt we needed to move something to get more pieces and to get younger and more athletic. [Trading him] was something we needed to do then. This is something we needed to do now.”
It’s not that I don’t think Danny Ainge is doing a good job. It’s just that I don’t believe he’s listening to his own advice. There is a certain something that goes into being a General Manager for a professional team, especially basketball. It takes some courage, some wit, some imagination, and it especially takes vision. Ainge has vision, it just changes every six months or so.
The Celtics, now, are indeed getting younger. Drafting high schooler Gerald Green with the 18th pick (some call it a steal, I call it a shame to have passed on Hakim Warrick) to complement last year’s high school draft pick Al Jefferson, and the Celtics have two highly touted young prospects. Will they become Paul Pierces or Ron Mercers? Coach Doc Rivers and a lot of bench time can decide that.
Trading Walker may have been a desperation move, knowing the free agent would most likely sign with another team anyway. The players, rights to players, or draft picks he received from a number of select teams in return for Walker were minimal, insubstantial, and unlikely to bear a diamond in the rough. But for Ainge and the Celtics, simply getting younger is simply not good enough.
I met JoJo White last year at a golf outing and I listened as he talked basketball, past and present. White, a Celtic Hall of Famer and current Director of Special Projects, spoke of how they used to play, the style and flow of the games back when he was a seven-time All-Star. And he talked about the league now, its flaws and irregularities, and how he and Ainge were planning to change it. Focused, fundamentally sound ballplayers, he said. Young players willing to listen and learn, pass before shoot, box-out before cherry-pick, and win games before winning sponsorships. He spoke as if Boston was going to change their team one player at a time, and inevitably change basketball.
Maybe I’m missing a side-step or two, but it doesn’t seem like Danny Ainge is building his franchise around these principles. I understand how hard it is to revolutionize. It’s nearly impossible–but that’s where the vision comes. In order for Ainge to make the future, he needs to see it. Stop toying with Antoine Walker–he’s not going the direction this franchise should. For that matter, cut ties with Paul Pierce, too. Bring in ballplayers, athletes that would make JoJo White or Larry Bird or Bill Russell happy. Players like Chauncey Billups (former Celtic), Carlos Boozer, Troy Murphy, Andre Miller, or Damon Jones. If you’re looking for hustle, find someone like Josh Howard. If you’re looking for leadership, find someone like Deron Williams.
Boston is a team of unparalleled history, and it kills me to see it go to shambles year after year. Danny Ainge of all people should recognize the dire need to reinvigorate this franchise, rebuild the program into a championship-caliber winner. There are times when he seems to make the right decisions, and his vision seems to be dead on. But with each step forward, he takes two back–eating his words with acquisitions like Walker, Ricky Davis, or Tom Gugliotta.
So for now, trading Walker to the Heat for a few draft picks and a few bench players, at least it gets some dead wood out of the water. Not that Walker was bad, but he just wasn’t flowing in the right direction, the Green Stream. I just hope that Ainge fulfills the plans he has laid out.
And who knows? It’s not the first time the Celtics made a shocking blockbuster deal that paid out all right in the end: In 1980, the Celtics traded the first pick in the draft to the Warriors for the #3 pick and a young bench player.
That bench player was named Robert Parish. The #3 pick was used for Kevin McHale.
And the rest is history.
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