Brad is much, much more aggressive about spending picks of all kinds on rotational upgrades. He particularly guys who are proven in the league and have some situational fit upside, but are underpriced a bit (not tons). 2021 Horford, DWhite, KP all fit this. Even Jrue, arguably does: he was playing at an All-NBA level in Milwaukee, but was available for less than similarly impactful guys.
To the extent this difference exists, it probably has a lot to do with most of Danny's moves in his 18-year tenure being with a view towards the next 5+ years, whereas Brad's moves are specifically around Banner This Year (and apres lui, le deluge). The most dramatic exception to that - acquiring Ray and KG - sort of still fits, since he was focused on winning that year with the assets he had (and made smaller moves to shore things up, of course).
agreed.
I mostly agree, with one huge caveat: Brad rarely (never?) overpays. He just is willing to exchange picks for slightly underpriced rotation players, over and over.
It's certainly debateable - I would characterize Jrue trade as an overpay value-wise....depending on what assumptions one makes about him resigning, TL's future, etc. and how much Brogdon didn't really fit. It's a ton of value to upgrade from Brogdon to Jrue.
A few of Brad's deals have been fair for both sides.
I was more getting at the idea of using assets to upgrade around the core--as opposed to building the core in the first place--in a way that improved the chances of a title. To be clear, not criticizing Danny at all. Love him! I'm just saying that it *felt* like he was more reluctant than Brad is to part with his assets to marginally though meaningfully upgrade the roster.
I give him a lot of credit operationally, but he was here under Danny, and the strategy wasn't as strong then.
It feels more like Brad is much, much more willing to trade picks for players further along in their developmental curve, where other teams have already sanded off the rough edges, while Danny went for guys that had high ceilings and lower floors. The latter's great for developing teams, the former's much more useful for contenders.
I was planning to post a similar response. I cannot think of a trade Brad has made that was an overpay. The only trade I can think of that even got some pushback here was the White trade, with a minority of posters worried about the value of the 2028 swap. There was some significant disagreement on how valuable White was (Brad has come out on the right side of that) and the value of the swap (still too early to say but I remain confident that barring an injury-plagued season, that swap is unlikely to be a big deal). Brad has certainly been more willing than Danny was to take risks on deals that weren’t clear cut winners, but he has consistently targeted players the league wasn’t valuing fully (Horford, White, Porzingis, and arguably even Jrue). Focus on acquiring undervalued players v. winning trades has been a big plus because it lets him/us keep improving via trades without needing to “win” them.
A HUGE amount. My completely random guess is 33/67 split between him & Brad.
It's crazy that he's better at this than at coaching, and he was a pretty good coach.
It’s so hard to say since we don’t know who he fought hard for that Danny/Brad vetoed and vice versa.
The thing is, DWhite and KP are doubles or triples, easy. There isn't a way to slice things that doesn't make Brad look awesome imo.
Agreed. Brad's teams don't have the minutes to develop rookies or even players like Aaron Nesmith or Langford.
Brad has posted a ton of singles but also has his share of HRs. He has done a plethora of really good deals in 30 months where he's batting around .900
Definitely felt like there was a Danny/Pritchard pissing contest that got in the way of doing good business on that one.
None of us know for sure but I would venture a guess that he deserves a shitload of credit. He's always one of the first people mentioned when talking about the Celtics FO and their competency, even back to the Ainge days
I like to think of it that Brad is hitting singles but stealing 2nd and 3rd. More specifically, I feel like Brad is trying to incrementally improve the team outside of the Jays and is willing to give up "fair value" in return but the trades wildly overperform.
With respect to Hayward, unless the Jays put the kibosh on it based on their World Cup experience, I think Brad would have ended up with Myles Turner, who I think would have been a good asset for BOS.Agreed. Brad's teams don't have the minutes to develop rookies or even players like Aaron Nesmith or Langford.
Brad has posted a ton of singles but also has his share of HRs. He has done a plethora of really good deals in 30 months where he's batting around .900
Here is pure conjecture on my part:
Gordon Hayward signing with Charlotte would be a good example of the difference between Danny & Brad.
Danny ended up with a TPE (+2 Seconds), not terrible assets. BUT I suspect Brad would have gotten something done with Indiana, extracted more assets, & the Pacers would have paid less for Gordo contract-wise (his desired location). Win/Win...Just my gut feeling.
Danny was/is a great GM, all of my criticism of him centers on, his last couple of years in Boston (All-Star game Kyrie/Durant hallway meeting until he "retired"). PBS has crushed it over his 30 months with a different approach than Danny was taking with this team.
The contract stuff is important. Ainge constantly found himself with not enough contracts to move, and there were a ton of prospective deals that simply weren't doable because of that.
Stupid question but one I don’t know the answer to: Why have second round picks become valuable as trade currency. Are we seeing more and more players taken in the second round hit? Do the picks offer some kind of financial flexibility? Is it a bubble—team X accepted them from team Y in a trade that worked out, so teams A, B, and C started seeing value in them and before long the entire league coveted them? Something else?
There are new salary cap rules for 2nd round picks, which can now be signed with the 2nd round exception. Makes it easier for teams over the cap to sign them to a contract that is still much less AAV than a mid first-rounder. Instead of paying a Romeo Langford* or Aaron Nesmith* $4M/yr to sit on the bench waiting for developmental minutes or play in G-league, they can pay Jordan Walsh $1.2M.
I think Danny is and has been a better GM. KG, Nets trade, Tatum trade back and draft.
The thing is, the current core is the result of collecting picks and hitting hard on two guys, Tatum and Brown.
People have given Danny plenty of appreciation for his rebuild. It was really, really well done, particularly given how much pressure he had to not deal Pierce and KG. Leveraging IT's unexpected pop to getting Horford and Hayward to sign was also really good stuff.
Yeah I was waiting for someone to defend Ainge here and the criticisms listed above. Totally disagree on the part about not having enough contracts compared to Brad which of course comes with not having a 15-man roster and more CBA flexibility. Ainge was the guy who made the Theo Ratliff move AND had all those contacts available to get the KG deal done which included having the assets to acquire Ray Allen first. He was brilliant at adding fit to his rosters with cheap FA signings such as Posey then later PJ Brown and Cassell. Unlike Brad, he used his low picks to draft for need in adding older rookies Big Baby and Powe. Having the cajones to trade Pierce and KG bc he felt so strongly (as did I back then) that Red screwed up by hanging onto Bird, McHale and Parish isn’t something many others could do.
Like, say, bringing in Sam Cassell and PJ Brown?
It's funny you phrase Brad as GM this way, because his departure from the coaching ranks seems to be borne out of his recognition that he couldn't get that last 10-15% as a coach. And he has been proactive in identifying the coaches which can help get that last little bit. First with Ime who tried to beat some humility into the boys to let the team know they haven't arrived yet...now Coach Joe who has hard-ass qualities yet also a "player's coach".
No doubt, there were two Dannys, Pre & Post Kyrie Era
Do we have evidence that Presti isn't able to build from a good team into a true contender, and that his talents are merely limited to consistently winning trades involving draft picks? We're talking about a guy who played a large part in building the Spurs' dynasty, then went to the Sonics and drafted Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka (via clever trade machinations), and Harden in back-to-back-to-back years. They were a real contender, losing only to the Heatles, and the last gasp of the Duncan/Kawhi Spurs. He then screwed up by trying to nickel-and-dime James Harden, probably on the orders of ownership who didn't want to pay luxury tax, so the extent of blame we can lay at his feet is debatable. But how many execs can say they built a team as good as that Thunder squad? Since losing Durant, his team obviously hasn't been competitive, but the same is true of every contender, whose windows come in waves.
I think Presti is really good, and "can't build a contender" would be too strong, but I still want to see what he does with this current core.
This is the point I was about to make. Good possibility Brad just lets Zarren pull the trigger on deals more often than Danny did. Also have to take into account that the Jays are entering their prime years now as opposed to 3-4 years ago when it didn't make sense to GFIN mode.
If we're being hyper-technical (and when are we not), since Presti already has built one team that has gone to the NBA finals and has a team that certainly has a chance of going to the NBA Finals, he has built teams squeezing out that extra 10-13%.
The curse of Kyrie strikes again!
If that’s the case let’s also say it’s Wyc vs Wyc as he is one of the leagues most hands-on owners with his GM’s. He’s well known for being the one is the ultimate decider.
Good point, Ainge gave Wyc credit for having him go back to Billy King and Nets ownership to demand, initially a third first-rounder, and then a 4th one (Before settling on accepting 3 plus a swap). For reading that the other side had "deal fever" and wouldn't walk away.
Everything points to Mike Zarren being the best CAP guy in the NBA.
I think a better example would have been trading Daryl Morey for Brad. Morey has “won” a lot of trades in his career but never seems to be able to take talented teams across the finish line. He wasted James Hardens career while strip mining the Rockets future and now seems to be doing the same thing to Embiid and the 76ers.
More than willing to give him a ton of credit. He’s kept the management team strong and did well to get Stevens in there which was not an easy call at the time. I don’t think he’s behind many of the actual maneuvers, though, and in my view the Celtics have been uncommonly good at managing the cap rules and salary slot restrictions for years now. It has been their super power versus some other teams who have been able to accumulate ring chasers
He’s been the first to say how he’s the final decision maker and Ainge has given him credit for his involvement in negotiations. Everything we’ve seen and heard has him heavily involved dating back to Ainge’s early drafts when he was working the phones.
