Danny’s most recent victim was the Atlanta Hawks who handed over John Collins for Rudy Gay and a future 2nd round pick. Sure, Collins’ performance dropped off last season and he might have issues we’re not aware of. But Collins remains a talented 25 year old prototypical modern NBA PF with career averages of 15.8 points, 8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks along with 55.1% field goal shooting, 35.6% 3-point shooting and 78% free-throw shooting on 3.2 attempts. Most importantly, Ainge acquired him for essentially nothing. No doubt Atlanta wanted to dump salary and they’ve been shopping Collins for several years now. The genius of Ainge is that he picked just the right moment and exploited the situation with another of his many one-sided trades. Sure, Collins has 3 years left on his contract in the range of $25-26.6 million per year, but that’s nothing to the rebuilding jazz who have a ton of cap space. And if Collins gets back to his stat levels before last season, that salary will be a bargain and easily tradable for far more than Ainge gave up.
Last summer, Ainge pulled off two fleecings, one of which is all too familiar to Wolves fans. I won’t go into the ugly details on the Gobert deal. But how about the Donovan Mitchell deal? In exchange for Mitchell, Ainge received Markkanen, Agbaji (last year’s #14 pick), Sexton, 3 future unprotected picks and 2 pick swaps. Donovan Mitchell is an all-star and the sort of player who can lead a team into and through the playoffs. But the haul Ainge got for him was enormous and particularly impressive given that the whole world knew Ainge was going to trade Mitchell after having traded Rudy.
Here’s a list of some other masterful deals orchestrated by the Celtic Fox:
1. Swapping the #1 pick (Fultz) for the #3 pick (Tatum) while also getting a future unprotected 1st-round pick. Ainge had Tatum #1 on his board and orchestrated a deal that got him his guy while also getting a future 1st. The fact that the future pick, Langford, hasn’t panned out is beside the point. Looking at what Tatum has become compared to Fultz and landing a future 1st-round pick made this deal a fleecing or close to it.
2. Trading Dejounte West, Wally Z and Jeff Green for Ray Allen and Greg “big baby” Davis. West, Wally and Green went on to do very little. In contrast, Ray Allen was instrumental along with KG and Paul Pierce in getting the Celtics a championship. Actually, Davis was also a significant contributor to that championship.
3. Marcus Thornton and a later 1st-round pick for Isaiah Thomas. Thomas went on to become an all-star PG while Marcus Thornton disappeared from the scene. I’m not sure what happened with the 1st round pick Danny gave up.
4. Trading KG and Paul Pierce for 3 unprotected 1st-round picks and a pick swap. Those picks became Tatum, Brown and indirectly Kyrie Irving.
5. Finally, the infamous KG deal back in 2007. At the time it actually didn’t look bad for the Wolves. The Celtics gave up Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Telfair, Green, Ratliff and two future 1st-round picks. But the Celtics kept Rondo, who McHale was holding out for at the time. And KG ended up combining with Rondo, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce for an impressive three-year run that included a championship.
If I were an NBA basketball executive, I’m not sure I’d take Danny’s calls.
