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NBA Exec Sends Strong Message on Ex-Celtic Danny Ainge

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Getty Former Celtics player Danny Ainge waves before the Celtics home opener.

Danny Ainge has an extensive history with the Boston Celtics. He played for the team from 1981 to 1989, then went on to be President of Basketball of Operations for the team from 2003 to 2021. During those eras, Ainge won two championships as a player and constructed a team that won a title, made two NBA Finals, and made six Eastern Conference Finals as an executive.

A Western Conference executive gave his opinion on why Ainge was a successful executive during his time with the Celtics compared to others.

“I think with Danny, there are very few guys out there who think about chemistry as much when they are putting together a team. I mean, he had talented teams with (Paul) Pierce and Antoine (Walker) that did not get very far. And he had one of the teams that had the best chemistry in the last couple of decades with that (2008) Boston team. You can feel the difference with your stars, with your role players.”
The executive brought up that Ainge’s experience as a player and as a head coach helped him understand the importance of chemistry when trying to construct a winner.
“He saw it as a player in Boston. That 1986 Celtics team was just chemistry up and down, all 12 players. And before that, there was some bad chemistry with the Celtics and the players there (with) Bill Fitch in the early 80s. He saw it in Phoenix, where he had some talented teams he was coaching, but they did not like each other. They did not like him, and that was it. They failed. So he learned those lessons well. You can tell he thinks about that when he makes moves.”

Ainge is applying that same mindset with the current team he works for, the Utah Jazz, as the team traded away all-stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.

Ainge Says Jazz Players Did Not Believe in Each Other

On September 12, Ainge held a press conference with Justin Zanik to discuss the big moves he made for the Jazz during the offseason. Ainge got candid about what he saw in last year’s Jazz players, saying that they did not have faith in each other.

“What I saw during the season was a group of players that really didn’t believe in each other,” Ainge said, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. “I think individually they have resolve. I just don’t believe that collectively they did. So we saw a lot of players trying to do it on their own, as the belief in one another wasn’t as great as other teams I’ve been on and around.”

Ainge admitted that, despite being optimistic heading into the playoffs, he had seen enough after the Jazz were eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks.

“So when we got to the playoffs, I thought, well, this is a team that’s had some disappointing playoffs, and maybe they’re just waiting for the playoffs,” he continued. “And so I gave them that benefit of the doubt. But it was clear the team did not perform well in the playoffs again.”


More Moves Could be on the Horizon

By trading Mitchell and Gobert, the Jazz have signaled that they are starting from scratch as a team. Utah still has veterans like Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley Jr., and Jordan Clarkson to trade.

Ramona Shelburne of ESPN reported on September 12 that there is a market for those three, although it appears the Jazz are not rushing to make a trade.

“The sense around the league is that the Jazz at least feel that they have deals for all of those veteran players,” Shelburne said. “The Jazz are not in any hurry to make these decisions now. They don’t need to do that much financially to get under the tax, and they can take their time.”

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