Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge is seriously considering his future with the team and could make the decision to step down from his position in the front office, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Wojnarowski’s report comes on the heels of the Celtics’ exit from the postseason. After making the Eastern Conference Finals in three of the last four years, Boston entered the season with aspirations of competing for a title. However, due to COVID-19 issues, injuries, and inconsistent play, the team never built momentum toward legit contention, finishing seventh in the East. While the C’s earned a postseason berth via the play-in tournament, they were eliminated swiftly in the first round by the Nets.
We’ll have to wait for more details on Ainge’s thinking, but it’s worth noting that the veteran executive has had some health scares in the past. He suffered a mild heart attack in 2009, then another in 2019. Ainge took some time away from the job after that second heart attack two years ago, and later talked about it serving as a wake-up call to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Still, Chris Mannix of SI.com, who suggested on Tuesday night that he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Ainge leaving the Celtics, hears that the 62-year-old likely wouldn’t retire if he stepped down from his position in Boston. The expectation is that he’d seek another opportunity in that scenario, tweets Mannix.
Ainge is one of the NBA’s longest-tenured presidents of basketball operations, having held the role with the Celtics since 2003. His tenure in that position is exceeded by only Gregg Popovich (Spurs) and Pat Riley (Heat), both of whom have been presidents of basketball operations since the mid-1990s.
During his 18 years in Boston, Ainge has made a series of memorable deals. His trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen helped lead the Celtics to a title in 2008. Additionally, the blockbuster deal that sent an aging Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Nets for a boatload of draft picks in 2013 is considered one of the biggest heists of the century, putting Boston in position to land Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in subsequent drafts.
A handful of Ainge’s moves in recent years haven’t panned out quite as well. The Celtics haven’t had a great hit rate on draft picks besides Tatum and Brown, and their last star trade acquisition (Kyrie Irving) departed after just two up-and-down seasons.
The Celtics are a bit of a tweener right now. They have really good players (Tatum, Brown) so it isn’t feasible to blow it up but also they’re roster construction and cap situation makes it so acquiring a star is difficult and it’s hard to see a move to make drastic improvement.
Thank God
Exactly. This guy’s been in the role too long and they’ve gone nowhere.
1 title in 20 plus years. Absolutely time to dump this dude.
If he would step down and seek a job elsewhere this just seems like PR speak that he is being fired, but letting him save face.
yeah, i was thinking him being blind was going to be a bigger deal, instead it’s been pretty quite reporting on that front so far.
The Hayward Kyrie and Kemba Walker experiments havent worked out. Would have been worse if he reupped IT4.
Ainge reluctant to trade some of their picks hurt them. They probably could of gotten AD or someone else.
AD was always going to the Lakers with Labron.
It would have been stupid to trade for him.
100% agree he would have walked.
Yeah but not sendinf Hayward to the Pacers for Turner + was a bad call.
He could have tried to acquire Vucevic before the bulls took him.
Sometimes you have to bet the farm for a year or two.
He can’t trot out the 2008 ring anymore. His decisions with Kyrie, Kemba, Hayward etc should’ve had him fired before this.
When’s the last time you won an NBA championship, Lionel?
Nooooooooo :-(
I think it’s funny how now everyone hates danny but a couple of years ago he was the greatest the kyrie, Kemba and Hayward moved were all universally loved at the time but the players weren’t healthy. I still think their biggest problem is to many guards and no quality bigs. Since they don’t have a lot of cap space a big time acisition is out but a guy like markannan from the bulls, no bamba from the magic, or turner from the pacers would give them an athletic big
Front runner Boston fans? Impossible
Some people on here saying he didn’t do enough, or was time to go, or are unhappy with a championship and 15/18 playoff seasons.
Some fans are spoiled.
BOS mustn’t be happy with just appearing in the post-season, in the 18 years he was there, you would expected they won like 4-5 championships, instead LAL won 3 to equalize them with 17 championships, seems quite the failure for BOS, right?
We’re talking about a franchise with 17 titles to its name. The Lakers will start firing people soon enough when they fail to win more rings themselves.
Kinda spoiled.