Brooklyn Nets Still Validating Danny Ainge
the perception of Danny Ainge as a GM continues to be tied to the success of the Brooklyn Nets
When Danny Ainge first traded Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets, nobody could have imagined the return he ended up getting. The Nets were supposed to have a nice string of success after that, meaning there was a chance the picks they gave away would not be too high.
The Boston Celtics were also supposed to be awful, so that pick swap that ended up landing Jayson Tatum and the Lakers pick this season was a potential positive at the time for the Nets.
Well, we all know how that trade worked out for the Nets, and they ended up giving the Celtics arguably the greatest return in the history of trades in the NBA. The Celtics are still feeling the benefits of that trade with how bad the Lakers are looking right now.
Ainge started his legacy when he made the trades that ended the longest championship drought in the history of the franchise. He fast forwarded that legacy years after that Nets trade, and now it is going to come down to how well his high draft picks can work out.
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The Nets helped cement Ainge as one of the elite GMs in the NBA because of how miserably they did after getting Garnet and Pierce, and now they are further validating him by surprising a lot of people with their solid play this season.
The Celtics traded away what many people thought would be the most important pick in that haul for Kyrie Irving, and people were killing Ainge for it.
Now, the Nets look far from the worst team in the East, and there are serious questions as to whether or not this pick will even land in the top 5.
No matter what else happens with the Celtics success this season, or Isaiah Thomas‘ health, if that Nets pick does not land in the top five, then Ainge will have once again robbed a team blind.
There is a good chance that the Cavaliers will only get half a season out of Thomas, Jae Crowder on good value , a disappeared Ante Zizic, and a middle lottery pick for one of the best young players in the NBA, making Ainge’s string of trade success unprecedented.
Of course, this is an impossibly small sample size and the Nets could slip back down into the bottom three of the league. Thomas could return with nothing lingering from his injury, then re-sign long term and give them multiple years of one of the best offensive players in the NBA.
Right now, however, looking only at the few games we have from this season, Ainge is looking like he hit another home run with this trade.
One way or another, it is on the Nets to validate this trade for the Celtics. The Cavaliers could miss on their pick in the top three, and this could still end up looking like a failure for the Celtics.
The pick could fall out of the top five, and the Cavaliers could find the best player who managed to fall, but Ainge’s success with this trade will be determined by where that pick lands.
Next: How Irving Could Jumpstart the Offense
The Nets may have one of the weaker rosters in the NBA, but they have no incentive to tank, and are functioning as a team, and not just individuals. Even if they cannot maintain the way they have played in this start, teams like the Suns or Bulls are far and away a worse than the Nets right now.