grading ainge

[mark at 10thumbs.org]

ainge is certainly making it harder on me -- what with his moronic X's and
O's don't matter quote.

Yeah we won 24 games -- i think the horrificness of our season is not up
for debate... but i think when grading a GM (as opposed to coaches or
players) you have to look at the entire body of work.

I think Ainge's worst moves have been (a) keeping Doc (the hire wasn't
bad, but he's been dragging this team down the last 2 seasons) (b) his
lateral trades -- even the POR one is a mix of bad/good (more bad than
good so far) but they have just been lateral for the most part... nothing
yet to jump us forward.

to get a worse grade -- to answer Ryan -- Ainge would have had to:

- draft worse --- it's my hunch that if you factored in drafting position
somehow that no one has drafted better than Ainge over the last 4 years.
Look at teams like Atlanta, who have had better drafting positions and
wound up with inferior talent.

- traded Pierce for 50cents on the dollar --- look at what LA got for
Shaq, PHI for Iverson, etc.  And we could be looking at a much bigger
mess.

- signed average bench guys to MLE type contracts BEFORE we're ready ---
at some point i think you take a chance going over the top (see for
example CLE, UTA) signing guys like Q. Richardson, Jamal Crawford, Marquis
Daniels... But as a developing team, they kill a team like IND or NY -- or
Boston.  Thankfully Ainge has avoided the quick fix. Scal's contract isn't
great but it's half what someone like Crawford's making (and no I don't
think Crawford's worth it).

Maybe Ainge deserves a C simply b/c of the results... but I really feel
like building a team is an inexact science and that while Ainge has made
some mistakes, he's overall done a slightly better than worse job -- thus
the B-.

As i mentioned, i generally agree with Hobbs' assessment here:
http://www.celticsblog.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=64&topic=4169.0

(the other) mark

----------------
Sean G wrote:
----------------
Even Shira gave him a C or C-.

On 5/11/07, ryan nelson <ryanmnelson at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Just curious.  If you gave ainge a b-, what would he have to do to get a
> worse grade in your mind?  Seriously, not being confrontational, just
> curious.
>
> He was the GM of the team with the second worst record in the NBA in his
> 4th season as their leader.  His team won 24 games, how is that not
> worse than a B-?  Just curious.
>
> Thanks,
>
> rmn