Danny Ainge is not a thief
Though it is about the most complimentary assessment of his deal-making a sports executive can receive, Danny Ainge is not, as the The Athletic reported a Cavaliers player called him over the winter, “a [expletive] thief.’’
Sure, most of the Celtics president of basketball operations’ recent trades have turned out to resemble heists, especially a certain pair of megadeals that had a seismic effect on the franchise in all the right ways.
But he’s craftier than your common front-office conman. He’s not selling snake-oil – he deals in quality and quantity – but he has an uncanny knack for getting more in return. He can win a deal, sometimes in a blowout, that his trade partner is almost certain is cannot-lose.
Consider: In July 2013, Ainge traded 35-year-old Paul Pierce, 37-year-old Kevin Garnett, 35-year-old Jason Terry, roster-filler D.J. White, and ’17 first- and second-round picks to the Nets. In return, the Celtics got five players, the most interesting of whom was a Kardashian discard, first-round picks in ’14, ’16, and ’18, and the right to swap first-rounders in ’17.
With those picks, they selected James Young, Jaylen Brown, Markelle Fultz (who was swapped to the Sixers for Jayson Tatum and a future first-rounder from Sacramento via Philadelphia). The Nets deal ended up a heist not because Ainge acquired so many first-rounders, but because he used them well (save for the squandered pick of the smooth but sluggish Young), often making his choice in the face of conventional wisdom.
Some Celtics fans booed at the team draft party when Brown was announced as the No. 3 overall pick in ’16, and Fultz was the consensus top choice in ’17 when Ainge traded out of the spot and ended up with the potentially transcendent Tatum. I’m not going to make you raise your hand in sorry acknowledgment, but I know some of you didn’t like either of these decisions whatsoever.
The final first-rounder from the now-dismal Nets deal ended up being the most appealing piece in another winning trade. That tantalizing pick, along with Isaiah Thomas (who arrived in Boston in another superb deal in February 2015 with the Suns and Pistons), Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic , a 2017 first-rounder and a 2020 second-rounder, were dealt to Cleveland last August for All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, who is basically a taller, less obnoxious version of the original Isiah Thomas.
That final first-rounder, acquired from the Nets and dealt to the Cavs, landed in the No. 8 slot in the 2018 lottery Tuesday night. That means there isn’t quite total closure on those two trades – we still need to see if they get a decent prospect at the No. 8 spot – but it’s close enough for full assessment. Better, it can be interpreted as two deals merged into one with the Nets pick as the bridge. Thinking about it that way, the Celtics acquired:
Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and James Young for Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, D.J. White, the ancient trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry, and a first-round pick the Cavs traded away.
This is, believe it or not, the simple version of how the trades ultimately benefited the Celtics.
There are deeper layers to explore – the Celtics got Crowder and stuff from Dallas basically for Rajon Rondo; the third prong of the Thomas acquisition from the Suns included the Celtics sending Tayshaun Prince to Detroit and Marcus Thornton and a first-rounder to Phoenix.
And the Cavs, with their midseason makeover that suddenly looks hideous, expanded the overall deal even further by dealing Thomas and Crowder for the likes of Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson, George Hill, and Larry Nance Jr, a quartet that combined for 5 points in 56 minutes Tuesday night.
But we won’t get into those ancillary elements here any deeper than this. You’re welcome.
Two thoughts on all of this:
Ainge robbed the Cavs and the Nets. But he is not a thief, because that’s giving too much credit to the general managers he swung trades with in recent years. They’re not victims. They’re closer to be co-conspirators. They were complicit in what Ainge did to them, because I guarantee you the general managers who made these deals were convinced they had won them in the moment.
Cavs coach Ty Lue, who used to be on Doc Rivers’s staff in Boston, recently paid a compliment to Ainge that could be interpreted at a backhanded swipe at Cavs general manager Koby Altman. “You want [Ainge] on your side,’’ said Lue. “He always get the best deals. He always makes the right moves.’’
The timing of this Cavs chirping – including the recent revelation of the months-old thief comment – is interesting. It makes sense to some degree. The Cavs are frustrated, down 2-0 and struggling to get any consistent scoring beyond LeBron. (Hmmm, don’t you wonder if he was the originator of the thief comment?) Irving was sensational in the playoffs last year, and as Steph Curry can tell you, not for the first time.
It certainly sounds like any laments Lue and the holdover Cavalier players had about the trade at the time it happened are bubbling to the surface now, as if they’re resigned to the fact that this series isn’t going to turn in their direction.
Just wait until they realize the Celtics have another enticing first-round pick coming from a deal with Memphis – for Jeff Green, a current Cav and forever an enigma.
Celtics fans will have to take any I-told-you-so victory laps for Ainge’s brilliant trades, because he’s certainly not about to take one himself, especially when it involves the team the Celtics are currently playing.
“First of all, time will tell [on the Cleveland trade],’’ Ainge said on 98.5 The Sports Hub on Thursday. “But that pick that we gave them had the chance to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. It turned out to be No. 8, but who knows? They may get a really good player with the eighth pick in this year’s draft. There are some very good players at the top of the draft.’’
What, did you actually expect a confession?
“I thought it was a fair trade at the time,’’ Ainge said. “Both key players in Isaiah and Kyrie aren’t playing in this series, which is interesting, but we liked the trade for us then and we like it now. Hopefully it works out for both teams.’’
Would a thief say that? Well … maybe a gracious one. But only once he was in the clear.
