Danny Ainge

I am grateful to Danny Ainge for all of his years with the Boston Celtics both as a player and as the President of Basketball Operations. If you don't think he was successful at both - you weren't paying attention.

Since 2001 only 9 NBA franchises have won an NBA championship and made multiple finals. The Boston Celtics are one of those franchises because of Danny Ainge. The Celtics also made 6 Eastern Conference Finals and 15 playoffs total in Ainge's 18-years at the helm. That's success at least 20 other NBA franchises would happily have traded for.

Before Ainge took over, Boston had not won 50 games in a season in over a decade. They averaged at least one 50-win season every three years under Ainge. Again - how does your home team franchise compare?

Ainge showed balls of steel taking first Jaylen Brown with the 3rd overall pick and then trading down to pick Jason Tatum 3rd. People bagging on Ainge today for picking someone like Romeo Langford are the same ones who conveniently forget that the pick was the bonus pick for trading with the 76ers to move down from 1st to 3rd in the first place.

Taking Terry Rozier with the 16th pick in the 2015 draft is something Ainge also doesn't get enough credit for. That was another pick none of the "experts" liked at the time. People rip Ainge for taking Kelly Olynyk with the 13th pick of the 2013th draft when Giannis went 2 picks later to the Bucks. But nobody knew what Giannis was back then. Fact is of the first 7 players taken in that draft Olynyk has scored more points than all but one of the players (Victor Oladipo), has more career rebounds than all but one (Alex Len), and has more assists than all but one player (Oladipo). Olynyk is exactly the type of production you hope to get with a pick in the teens.  

Anyway - thanks Danny. Enjoy the golf course. You've earned it!