Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson…
Joe Johnson Randy Brown, Milt Palacio and a first rounder for Rodney Rogers and Tony Delk…
These are just a few of the trades taken place with Rick Patino or Jim O’Brien making moves for the Celtics. It was clear that these moves were made by the GM’s in order to just keep their jobs and “get by”. They did not want to hold on to their potential superstar talent just so they can make the playoffs that year and get bounced. Sure you got some average talent that played well, but in turn gave up one of most clutch point guards to ever play the game (Billups) and another max contract superstar talent(Johnson)
This is where you draw the line with GMs like those and the Celtic’s Danny Ainge. Ainge does not seem to care about what the public may think about his moves. He does not want the Celtics to be okay with just making the playoffs. For Danny, it’s Championship or bust. This method of thinking comes naturally to him as he was a member of the dynasty Celtics in the 80’s and truly felt what it means to “bleed green”.
Danny is one of the few GMs that has the guts to pull the trigger when the time is right. He is willing to build up a young team with strategic draft picks then trade them away for some serious talent, a la “the big three”.
Danny has a natural instinct to know when the time is right for somebody to go or move down in the draft. He was able to trade Al Jefferson knowing that he will one day become a 20 10 player in return for an NBA championship. He was able to trade draft picks and land Rajon Rondo and Glenn Davis in later picks.
Ainge has the trust from ownership as well as himself to go ahead and make his mastermind moves. This goes to show that when a GM does not feel pressure to just be good enough to make the playoffs from ownership, they are able to open their horizons and push forth for an NBA championship.
Sure Danny traded away Center Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green. This may have just been a move foreshadowing the future by giving them a trading chip for landing a player like Chris Paul, and freeing up some space down in the paint for Dwight Howard.
Everything happens for a reason when it comes to Danny Ainge making moves. It is always going to be for the better of the team in order to get them to the glory land once again.