Danny Ainge has made 60 trades since being hired as the president of basketball operations for the Celtics in May 2003. With no basketball on the horizon until July, BSJ contributor Ryan Bernardoni and I teamed up for an enjoyable, albeit challenging endeavor: Ranking the Ainge trades from worst to best overall.
To accomplish this task, Ryan created a formula that allowed us to grade the deal based on a variety of factors (importance, quality) while also evaluating the deal at the time a trade was made and in hindsight (years later). Some deals will get the benefit of hindsight more than others in this exercise but we did our best to account for those issues. The end result is the following ranking from 60-1 with an analysis/explanation of each deal.
You can check out the previous sections of the countdown here
Misfires (60-51)
Forgettable deals (50-29)
Debating the Perk trade (No. 28)
Above-average deals (27-16)
Smart business (15-11)
Today, we start to break down some of his game-changers as we begin the top-10 countdown.
10. A 2015 protected second round pick (did not convey) to the Cavs for a 2016 protected first round pick (No. 28 Skal Labissiere), Tyler Zeller and Marcus Thornton in a three-team trade (July 2014)
Boston’s front office was clearly in asset accumulation mode at this stage of the team rebuild in the summer of 2014. They were left with a prime opportunity to absorb unwanted salaries thanks to a $10.4 million trade exception created by the Pierce/Garnett trade one summer earlier with the Nets that was set to expire in July 2015.
The Celtics were able to absorb the salaries of Zeller ($1.75 million) and Thornton ($8.5 million) into this trade exception while adding a top-10 protected first-round pick from the Cavs as a sweetener for taking on the hefty Thornton deal. The transaction paved the way for LeBron James signing with the Cavs but as has been the case during his Celtics tenure, Ainge was happy to help facilitate the arrival of a star addition elsewhere as long as the C’s were paid off handsomely for the help.
Thornton and Zeller were role players in Boston over the 2014-15 season before a surprise trade at the trade deadline in February 2015 sent Thornton packing for Phoenix. Incredibly, the Celtics used the return from this deal (Thornton and the protected Cavs first-round pick for 2016) to land Isaiah Thomas in that deal, a move that set the stage for the franchise’s turnaround over the next two seasons. We will dive into that one in greater depth as we hit the top-5 but this was a perfect example of the Celtics front office finding a way to maximize assets and trade opportunities. They waited until the buzzer to use the trade exception (just two days before it expired) after having it for a year, likely turning down other trade possibilities in the process before maximizing a return.
9. Jeff Green to the Grizzlies for a 2019 protected first round pick, Tayshaun Prince and Austin Rivers in a three-team trade (January 2015)
Jeff Green was in the midst of a career year as the No. 1 option for a lackluster Celtics squad, which made this trade the perfect opportunity for Danny Ainge to sell high on him. Luckily for Boston, by the time they were starting to give up on him as a building block for the future (he had 1.5 years left on deal), there were still a few teams around the league that bought into his empty numbers and the fact that he could be starting caliber asset on a contender. The Grizzlies happily gave up a first-round pick down the line for a prime Green addition but the C’s did well to secure an asset down the line from Memphis when the team’s playoff core would be over the hill. At the time of the trade, Prince was not an asset but was a solid overpaid veteran that clearly wouldn’t disrupt the locker room so the C’s happily took him in before dealing him for younger talent (Jerebko).
Rivers was taken as part of the deal so the C’s were willing to take his money off the Grizzlies’ hands in order to help structure the deal and potentially gain another asset. They managed to find a landing spot for him in LA immediately after his dad came to the rescue with a second-round pick as part of the offer.
Dumping Green when his value probably wasn’t going to get any higher holds value to this day as the Celtics remain on the likely arrival of a mid first-round pick from the Grizzlies in 2020. It can be debated whether the C’s held onto this pick for too long (its stock has dropped considerably in the last year after the breakout play of Ja Morant) but that ‘mistake’ can largely be blamed on bad lottery luck (Memphis rising to No. 2 during the last lottery) than anything the C’s did wrong. They got the best return possible for a player they didn’t want to build with in Green and managed to leverage a couple of other picks/useful players out of the deal in spinoff deals in the coming weeks. In a season full of wheeling and dealing, this was some of Ainge’s finest work.
8. The draft rights to Troy Bell (No. 16) and Dahntay Jones (No. 20) to the Grizzlies for the draft rights to Marcus Banks (No. 13) and Kendrick Perkins (No. 27) (June 2003)
Ryan Bernardoni: This is about as straight-forward a draft pick trade as you’ll ever see. It was made on draft night and all four picks were for the same draft, so there were no future unknowns to consider. You see trades like this in the NFL draft all the time; they’re comparatively rare in the NBA.
I maintain a Draft Pick Value Chart like the ones used by NFL teams specifically for this type of situation. By that measure, the Celtics gave up 2,040 points of “value” for 1,945 in return. That difference of 95 points is equivalent to the 55th or 56th pick. Most trade-ups cost more than that, so the Celtics did a fine job in putting this swap together.
The reason that this trade ranks so highly is obviously not based on that, though. Dahntay Jones and Marcus Banks both had solid NBA careers as journeyman back-ups. Troy Bell was a college legend in Boston but made no impact in the NBA. Kendrick Perkins started on a title winner, may have won a second if not for a brutally bad timed injury in 2010, and was eventually moved via a trade that’s still paying dividends today.
The proper valuation of picks on draft night made the trade a solid one, but the player evaluation of one doughy high school center from Texas made it a top-10 move of Ainge’s Boston tenure.
7. The 2017 No. 1 overall pick (Markelle Fultz) to the Sixers for the No. 3 overall pick (Jayson Tatum) and a future first-round pick (2019 -- No. 14 Romeo Langford) (June 2017)
A strong case could be made that this swap belonged in the top-5 if the Sacramento Kings did not emerge from the league basement during the 2018-19 regular season and turn into a fringe playoff team. That bad luck for Boston turned a potential second high lottery pick into No. 14 overall (Romeo Langford) for the Celtics in addition to Tatum. After an injury-riddled rookie season, the jury is still out on the 20-year old Langford and will be for the next few seasons as he developed. Generally, it takes a lot more than the No. 14 overall pick to move up from No. 3 to No. 1 in the NBA Draft but the Celtics gambled on the potential upside that the Kings pick could have brought if not for the breakout of De’Aaron Fox and otherwise.
With all that said, the Celtics still came out smelling like roses in this deal with the best probably still to come. Not only did they get their guy in Tatum, who is on course to be a perennial All-Star, but they also managed to help their salary cap situation by taking him at No. 3 (a significant decrease from the No. 1 overall pay slot). That adjustment allowed the Celtics to maintain some additional payroll flexibility after agreeing to terms with Gordon Hayward for a max deal in July 2017.
Combine that with the fact that dealing with a chief rival in Philadelphia set the Sixers back significantly by handing them a prospect that ended up being damaged goods after suffering a shoulder injury and this is a trade that will leave a lasting imprint on both franchises for decades to come.
6. Ricky Davis, Marcus Banks, Mark Blount, Justin Reed and two conditional second-round picks (2006 — 31. Craig Smith, 2008 — No. 31 Nikola Pekovic) to the Wolves for Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones and a future protected first-round pick (2009 — No. 6 Jonny Flynn)
Boston was in the midst of another down year under Doc Rivers. Paul Pierce was playing like an All-Star but the veteran talent around him was not good enough while the youngsters (Kendrick Perkins, Al Jefferson, Gerald Green) had not developed enough yet to turn this group into a playoff team.
For that reason, the Celtics started to go into asset acquisition mode. They traded Davis in the midst of a career year, along with a useful overpaid big man (Blount) and a contributing guard (Banks) for an overpaid scoring wing in Szczerbiak and a couple of bigs that were stiffs in Olowokandi and Jones. By trading Davis at the peak of his trade value with Blount and Banks, the Celtics were able to consolidate a few of their contracts into one bigger deal. This would obviously come in handy when the team sent Wally as salary filler in the Ray Allen trade on draft night.
The bigger part of this deal though in relation to Garnett trade was the protected first-round pick that the Celtics acquired from the Wolves. The protections loosened every year until 2012 but ultimately led to an unprotected first-round pick for Boston.
Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren confirmed to BostonSportsJournal.com the value of the Wolves’ pick to Minnesota when it came to trade negotiations for Garnett. Outside of Jefferson, the Wolves first-round pick was arguably the most important asset in the deal that Boston was sending back, since the Wolves were clearly heading into rebuild mode when they traded Garnett.
That selection ended up being the No. 6 overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, during which the Wolves and new general manager David Kahn famously selected Jonny Flynn over Steph Curry, giving him a second guard to play next to Ricky Rubio.
Whether or not the Wolves pick proved to be the difference in getting the deal done, we will never be sure. However, it certainly did allow the Celtics to hold on to other assets, including Rajon Rondo, at the time of negotiations.
Ultimately, a lot of things had to go right to get the Garnett deal done. The Celtics picked well (Jefferson, Gomes) in recent drafts and wisely used the No. 7 pick to help dump a bad contract (Raef LaFrentz) while grabbing a young prospect (Telfair) and an expiring deal (Ratliff). Picking up the future first-round pick from the Wolves a mere 18 months before landing Garnett was just as essential to getting a final deal done.
Every move matters in the construction of a championship core, and this is a trade that remains as one of Ainge’s most overlooked strong deals 13 years later.