Reviewing trade history between Danny Ainge and David Griffin

Relationships matter in any workplace but that's especially true in the small world that is NBA front offices. Inside of it, it’s hard to find anyone in the league with a bigger network of relationships than Danny Ainge. The Celtics' president of basketball operations has spent over 35 years in the league as a player, coach, analyst and front office executive, which has allowed him to work alongside most of the top decision makers across the NBA at some point or another.

One of the individuals on that list is none other than new Pelicans president David Griffin. Ainge worked alongside Griffin in Phoenix when Griffin served as the team’s video coordinator under Ainge. Eventually, Ainge left coaching, doing TV work before heading to Boston in 2002 while Griffin climbed up the ranks of the front office in Phoenix. He eventually landed the top job in Cleveland in 2014.

The Celtics have steered clear major wheeling and dealing for much of the past two seasons (after the Kyrie Irving trade), but the smart money is on that changing in the next month. Boston will be looking hard at making changes to this roster after a disappointing 2018-19 campaign and it’s certain that Pelicans big man Anthony Davis will remain a target.

While much has been written about Davis hypotheticals, which will continue for at least the next month, it’s important to note how the relationship between Ainge and Griffin has come into play in the past. Griffin actually spoke on that during an interview on ESPN’s The Jump back in April.

“[Ainge] was a person that had a really big impact on my having an ability to get into scouting in the first place because he was giving me far more credit than I deserved for the players that I was ‘finding’ on videotape,” Griffin explained with a smile.

“I think to some degree you are mindful of what his tact is. You’re very mindful if you’re doing this right. You’re very aware of what everyone’s tact is,” Griffin continued. “The negotiating tactics that someone uses and employs, you’re going to be aware of that.

“Danny is not unique in that. He has a very specific style. What makes the situation with Danny unique is we have the type of relationship where we can really call each other on all that nonsense and just sort of go, this is what it looks like. Because we have that ability it makes any conversation we have along the way, a fruitful one.”

It was Ainge, in fact, that helped Griffin make the most important move of his tenure as Cavs general manager in the summer of 2014. LeBron James had informed the franchise that he intended on signing there as a free agent but the Cavs needed to clear out the necessary cap room to make that happen.

The Celtics had created a $10.4 million trade exception acquired in the KG/Pierce blockbuster deal with the Nets and that was a valuable tool to teams around the league that were looking to gain cap space. Ultimately, the Celtics served as a facilitator in a three-team trade with Cleveland and Brooklyn by agreeing to take on the hefty salary of Marcus Thornton ($8.6 million) into the exception without sending any salary back to the Nets or Cavs in the trade. As payment for taking on an overpaid Thornton, the Celtics also received a promising young center in Tyler Zeller, as well as a 2016 first-round pick (top-10 protected) from the Cavs. James signed with the Cavs one day later.

The Celtics were not the only team in the league that could have performed this time of deal for Griffin in 2014 and they certainly got something respectable out of it (that first round pick and Thornton was ultimately turned into Isaiah Thomas less than a year later). Still, Ainge made life easier for Griffin on this front who was in the process of trying to carefully mold a roster around James. The Celtics weren’t in direct competition with the Cavs at the time in the midst of a rebuild so they were happy to help out Griffin with some added upside for their trouble.

Ainge wasn’t done helping out Griffin in 2014 however.

Just two months later, he was dealing with Griffin again, sending the non-guaranteed contract of Keith Bogans ($5.3 million) to the Cavs as a potential trade chip in exchange for two second round picks and the rights to Dwight Powell.

Griffin was able to dump Bogans days later to the Sixers in order to create a trade exception for $5.3 million. Four months later, he used that trade exception to add Timofey Mozgov to the Cavs roster without having to send out any salary. All of this was again possible due to Ainge’s willingness to serve as a helpful facilitator for a contender by trading him Bogans for second round picks.

Will any of this matter in 2019? Not on the surface. Griffin is going to deal a superstar so he’s not going to be in a position to be a facilitator. He needs to get the best assets he can for one of the best players in the league. If the Celtics do end up putting together the best package though, there is a good chance based on past history that Griffin will be willing to be flexible for his former colleague in Ainge when it comes to executing the deal. The timing of any Davis trade will be tricky and the salary mechanics involved will create plenty of wildcards for Boston. In order to retain an asset (like Marcus Smart for salary matching), the C’s may need to pursue other methods once free agency begins (like a sign-and-trade involving one of their free agents). Those options may not be able to be explored until after July 1, which is ahead of a potential timeline for a Davis agreement.

Another executive might tell Ainge and the Celtics, ‘tough luck’ in this circumstance. Given the relationship and history between Ainge and Griffin, it’s fair to see the two sides will be able to get creative if needed. Like the Celtics were in 2014, the Pelicans won’t have any short-term championship aspirations if they deal away their best player, so Griffin should be in a spot to help return the favor. Whether or not the Pelicans ever cross that bridge and agree to a deal this offseason remains to be seen, but the relationship between the duo is one thing in negotiations that could help get the C’s to the finish line.