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The Boston Celtics have arguably one of the top GMs in the NBA in Danny Ainge and when you think “Celtics”, Ainge will certainly be one of the first players to come to mind. He had a terrific career for the franchise and was on a number of all-time great teams. He was about as athletic as they come as he also played in MLB for a brief time frame as well.
Hired a number of seasons ago, Ainge has helped to rebuild a Celtics franchise that hadn’t won a championship in over 20 years leading up to the team’s championship in 2008.
A quick recap on those developments: he acquired Ray Allen from the then Seattle Supersonics on the day of the NBA Draft, and stole Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves a few weeks later. The Garnett trade was quite a gift as he worked on the deal with then-Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale, who happens to be his best friend.
If McHale wasn’t running that team, the Celtics probably would not have gotten their hands on Garnett.
A little luck goes into the business, and Ainge certainly has that. He has made a number of questionable decisions, but he has done a solid job in his tenure overall. This year was not his best work as great decisions at the time looked pretty mediocre a year later. He was lauded for his acquisitions of Courtney Lee and Jason Terry, but they both had awful seasons and really didn’t give the team much in terms of difference-making production.
Ainge built another competitive team this past summer where, in this day in age, is something that needs to be counted for.
Rob Lunder covers the Boston Celtics for Rant Sports. For all Celtics news go to the team home page on Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @rlunder18
