Ainge just starting
His job starts now.
“I’m glad to be moving on to the next phase,” said Danny Ainge, executive director of basketball operations for the Celtics. “I’ve watched all of the guys play. One thing I have a worry about how it’s all going to fit.”
Ainge has some regrets (like his team’s defense), but injuries are not among them.
“Sure, there’s some things I wish we could have done better,” said Ainge. “I won’t share those. I can’t share things like that publicly in protection of the people that are still involved.”
Doc Rivers is still involved, having been given the keys to the team for another season. Ainge says Rivers was handed some bad cards this year and did all he could.
“Doc is a good coach,” said Ainge. “Doc did a good job, actually, in my opinion. That’s why we’d like to keep him as coach of this team and give him a real opportunity and chance to coach. That doesn’t mean that he’s perfect, but I think he did a really good job coaching this team.”
“We need to make more of a concerted effort at the defensive end. We need to become a better defensive team. But I think the No. 1 element of that is personnel. Doc had a really difficult job with the personnel that we had, with the inexperience, the lack of size in the backcourt.”
Would Ainge like to see Rivers as the coach of the team beyond next season?
“Yes,” he said.
While he gave his coach a good grade, Ainge could not do the same for himself. He said he did not do a good job this season because his team did not make a run deep into the playoffs. He said he wasn’t sure how soon that would happen.
He doesn’t regret holding on to his young players in potential deals for veterans that just weren’t right for his team.
“We tried,” said Ainge. “We made an effort. In some instances, had we added a veteran, we might have been sorry we didn’t have more patience with the young guys.”
“Obviously the No. 1 bright spot was Al, just because of his consistency,” said Ainge. “Going into the season we had high expectations just because we knew what he was capable of. What really impressed me with Al at his young age was his consistency this year.”
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