How Danny Ainge Rebuilt The Boston Celtics

BostonBob

4 Ever The Greatest
Jan 26, 2004
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6,569
Vancouver, BC
Nice in-depth story from CBS Sports looking at how Danny Ainge totally reconstructed the team after an early Playoff exit in 2013.


from cbssports.com:

After the Boston Celtics were bounced from the opening round of the 2013 playoffs, it was painfully obvious it was time for a rebuild.

Even coach Doc Rivers, the man at the helm of two NBA Finals appearances and one championship over the previous six seasons, started yearning for greener pastures.

By late June that year, the Celtics had agreed to deals that would deliver Rivers to the LA Clippers and aging stars and future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Brooklyn Nets in a jaw-dropping blockbuster.

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge then hired 36-year-old college wunderkind Brad Stevens as the team's new coach, giving him a six-year deal that underscored the daunting nature of the process that was ahead.

A mere four years after hitting the reset button, the Celtics are coming off a season in which they won an East-best 53 games and appear on the cusp of returning to legitimate title contention. How did Boston turn things around so quickly?

Ainge and his front-office staff relentlessly overhauled the team's roster, targeting undervalued talent that formed the Celtics' chip-on-their-shoulder core while also feverishly stockpiling future draft picks. They hit a couple of home runs along the way (Boston is still collecting picks from the Pierce/Garnett swap and got All-NBA guard Isaiah Thomas virtually for free thanks to the aftershocks of the Nets blockbuster).

Stevens has squeezed every drop of talent out of all the players that have passed through -- and there have been many of them -- and the rest of the league, including some of the biggest free agents of the past two summers, took notice of Boston's expedited climb and have rushed to join the voyage.

The Celtics made more than 70 major moves over the past four years, including 21 trades that helped bring back 16 future draft picks to Boston. A look at how the franchise fast-forwarded through the rebuilding process:


Full story here: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...rebuilding-project-transformed-boston-celtics
 
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