BOSTON – There’s a saying that has become gospel Celtic Nation: Trust in Danny.
Today, every Celtics fan must do exactly that.
Ainge on Monday signed off on a deal that will send the No. 1 overall pick in
Thursday’s NBA Draft to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for the No. 3 pick
and a future first-round pick. The future pick will be the Lakers’ first-round
pick in 2018 if it falls between pick Nos. 2-5, and if that pick is not
conveyed, the C’s will instead have the rights to the better of Philadelphia and
Sacramento’s first-round picks in 2019, as long as it is not No. 1. If the
Sixers or Kings earn the top pick, Boston will own the rights to the worse of
the two selections.
This trade will be accompanied by plenty of banter, if only for the fact that
trading the No. 1 pick is a very rare occurrence in the NBA. Ainge is well aware
of the critics.
“This is certainly a trade that is under the microscope more than others,” he
told reporters via a conference call Monday afternoon, “but we’re not afraid of
that.”
Ainge has never been afraid of making a deal simply because of the public’s
perception, and that’s what makes him great. He is fearless, and he cares not
what you think. His only concern is what he and his basketball operations group
think.
When the rarity of trading a No. 1 pick is stripped away and we get down to the
base of this deal, we arrive at the same place Ainge always intends to stand
when he completes a trade: the better end.
“We think there’s a really good chance the player we’ll take at 3 is the same
player we would have taken at 1,” Ainge proclaimed Monday.
If such is the case, the Celtics just hit a pre-Draft home run. They will get
the guy they wanted all along, all while adding a premier asset. No-brainer.
Ainge has said over and over in the past that he is only interested in making
what he likes to call “good deals.” This trade certainly qualifies if this
year’s prospects pan out the way the Celtics have predicted.
The deal boils down to Boston’s assessment of this year’s draft class. Many on
the outside are questioning Ainge’s decision because they’ve heard one name or
another attached to the C’s at the top of the draft board. The Celtics, however,
have been peering through a different window.
“We’ve been evaluating these kids for a couple of years, and we felt like it was
very close with the top handful of players,” said Ainge, “and we still feel that
way.”
In other words, the Celtics were not in agreement with outside perception that
one player had separated himself from the rest of the pack. And the fact that
Boston disagreed with that assessment doesn’t make it wrong.
Ainge and his staff have evaluated talent at a high level for a very long time.
They have quietly pried some of their best players away from other teams via
trades (see: Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder), having won basically every trade
they have made in the last half-decade. They have also hit on nearly every pick
they’ve made in the lottery or teens of the NBA Draft during that same time
frame.
Don’t let the fact that Fab Melo (No. 22) and R.J. Hunter (No. 28), who were
chosen in the latter third of the first round, were failed experiments in Boston
cloud your memory. Same goes for the fact that James Young (No. 17) is still
waiting for his chance.
Concentrate more on the Avery Bradleys (No. 19), the Jaylen Browns (No. 3), the
Marcus Smarts (No. 6), the Kelly Olynyks (No. 13), the Terry Roziers (No. 16),
and the Jared Sullingers (No. 21) of the world, and to a lesser extent, the
Guerschon Yabuseles (No. 16) and the Ante Zizics (No. 23) of the world.
Those are all hits, and that’s a very impressive resume of talent evaluation.
The moral of the story here is that Ainge tends to make good deals, and he tends
to evaluate talent at a very high level. Those two facts bode very well for
Boston when it comes to the fortunes of this trade.
So what should you do as you sit back and internalize this blockbuster of a
deal? The answer is short and simple: Trust in Danny.
Media Content:
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should-trust-in-danny
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