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Originally Posted by Tien
What makes me criticize Ainge is that he held out all of his treasure trove of assets this off season and could have gotten far better players in return.
Jimmy Butler and Paul George flew by and Ainge passed on it because he is some "NBA GM savant" that is only there to fleece other GM's like Billy King.
No...he let PG go because he was traded prior to them signing Hayward so they wouldn't have had cap space to sign Hayward if they traded for him + the Pacers weren't really interested in trading him to the east for some reason + he would have been a 1 year rental which wouldn't have helped their long term outlook at all.
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Ok, so he lets go of IT, Jae, Brooklyn pick, Zizic, and 2nd round for Kyrie Irving. Meanwhile both Paul George and Jimmy Butler are far superior players. Both of them made all defensive teams, have 2 way impact, and can also score a lot of points.
George is a better player than Kyrie, but what are they going to do with a 1-year rental on a guy who's headed to LA next year regardless? Go all-in to beat the Warriors this year? That's a bad plan.
I'm not sure what the deal is with Butler. I think he might have been a nice addition. Zach Lowe just reported yesterday that the Celtics didn't want to offer much because they were concerned with his fit on & off the court with Hayward et al. If that's a thing, it's a thing.
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Ainge gave Olynyk, IT, Crowder, Bradley (4 of their top players) and got Morris / Kyrie / Hayward in return. I'm extremely disappointed with what kind of haul they got in return.
This is just super odd. Olynyk was a free agent (who now makes $12.5m per year), IT2 is about to be a free agent & is injured, & Bradley is about to be a free agent...Crowder is obviously a good value for 3 more years.
They traded 5 total years of those 4 guys for 4 years of Hayward who is much better than all of them, 2 years of Kyrie who is better than all of them (& seems interested in coming aboard long term), & 2 years of Morris (whatever).
Having an issue with losing those 4 for the incoming 3 is pretty crazy, especially when considering contract situations.
The issue to have with the Kyrie thing is losing the Brooklyn pick, not that 4 for 3 which is clearly a huge upgrade.
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If you are saying "what else could he have done". Well nobody was pointing the finger at Ainge to mortgage the future on Hayward, Horford and Kyrie. He made all of the 3 above deals because there was nothing left, nobody left to max so he went all in.
I just don't understand what your vision of the Celtics looks like without Horford, Hayward or Kyrie? Just a bunch of randoms on 1 year contracts? Giving Olynyk 4/$50m? Having an injured expiring IT2 & an expiring Bradley?
Like what does your proposed team look like that's better than that? Assets expire at some point. You need to do what you can to spin them forward.
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Originally Posted by vaya
I kind of feel bad for the other mediocre NBA GMs who don't have their mediocre draft records defended every day
I dunno. Mbn to not get scrutinized for being the same as everyone else in the league at drafting.