Ainge to me remains a good GM. I don't think he is as good as Riley or Masai, or Buford. But I think there's a case for him as high as fourth (one can argue about Morey, for sure) and it's pretty hard to not have him in the top ten with any credibility. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that---people get fixated on a binary approach to a coach or GM and that just isn't so.
As I've said in other threads, my belief is that he is a hair too little focused on depth, and I think it's pretty clear the draft picks the last few years have been disappointing. But that story is not fully written yet, and while it's easy to forget the headline on the draft for him recently is "got his three biggest picks perfectly right" which is incredibly important and incredibly hard to do.
As I've said in other threads, my belief is that he is a hair too little focused on depth, and I think it's pretty clear the draft picks the last few years have been disappointing. But that story is not fully written yet, and while it's easy to forget the headline on the draft for him recently is "got his three biggest picks perfectly right" which is incredibly important and incredibly hard to do.