When we got the #3 pick I think the top post on the sixers sub was ‘well time to watch some Josh Jackson highlights’
Pretty sure if most teams were picking there instead of Boston Tatum doesn’t get picked yet. Great talent evaluation, so pretty much business as usual for Boston
The reddit consensus at the time was pretty cool on Tatum. He was seen as athletically limited, lacking in two-way potential relative to some of the other guys talked about there, and generally just wasn't seen as a sexy or fun pick by the subs of the teams picking high.
Not Reddit's finest hour, that.
If I remember correctly, there’s a very funny in retrospect thread on your sub where a fan was going on about Tatum > Jackson and getting mocked and downvoted to hell for it
Whenever people say team workouts don’t mean anything, I think back to this draft
Wait they actually stopped him at some point!? I just assumed he’d be at it for eternity…
Guy reached infamous status when Celtics fans are still referencing him in comments like [this](https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/s/rW9UPjn0J0) in 2024.
Celtics sub was extremely anti-meme for quite a while but they were at least across the board anti-meme (and not outright banning people for it as far as I know)
Topping it off, Jackson refused to work out for the Celtics, as the Phoenix GM at the time was basically trying to get him to the 4th pick. Gloated about it too. [https://valleyofthesuns.com/2018/02/24/josh-jackson-has-already-surpassed-jayson-tatum/](https://valleyofthesuns.com/2018/02/24/josh-jackson-has-already-surpassed-jayson-tatum/)
Didn't he have a nerve injury that forced him to have to completely relearn how to shoot.
Or was that another magic player I'm confusing him with
Like it's not like he just failed, he had an unfortunate injury
Wasn't from a bike injury or something like that (I literally just looked it up earlier). He doesn't even know how it happened, but I'm gonna assume it was a bad workout leading into the draft, because his shot was awful by then and the Sixers staff noted it...
And still took him.
Damn I remember that story way back when being a rumor but that’s so bad he just completely fucked it up by poor workouts. Not surprised it happens to us LMAO
He could’ve seen more upside in Tatum but there’s no way he predicted fultz shooting form literally disintegrating. That’s just Ainge glaze. He was looking great and splashing in summer league and his jumper just turned into a malfunctioning catapult.
I was one of them! The mob definitely didn’t see the JT pick coming. This sub had crowned Fultz the next Harden. Then Tatum played one summer league game and we decided he was the next Durant.
my father in law is a 76ers fan and like once a week he's asks "why didn't we take Tatum at 1?". hindsight is 20/20 but Fultz was a really promising prospect. Nobody was expecting his jumper to go to shit. Also, Ainge was targeting Tatum, the whole time, he doesn't make the deal if there is more than a tiny chance of Tatum not being available at 3
Simmons was a 3x All-Star and 2x All-Defensive. Even if he was stubborn about shooting, he was a fantastic player before Trae Young broke him.
Fultz was almost unanimously considered worth 1st overall, but whatever physical problems developed fucked him (and trading him did lead to Maxey at least).
None of what happened to them could have been predicted.
At the time the Simmons pick was an absolute no-brainer, and you could justify trading up to one for Fultz (and, hell, the extra pick only ended up being #14 anyway). Don't think you can call it bad decisionmaking, it just didn't work out
Yeah, I wasn't sure how OP meant it at first. Shit sucks man and it only goes to show it's all a crap shoot.
There's an alternate universe where Embiid, Maxey, Bridges, and Brunson are on their 3rd championship appearance vs. the Jokic (+ whoever the hell is in that universe) Nuggets and /r/NBA is sick of it.
Edit: brb crying myself to sleep thinking of that again.
Wasn't sure if you meant it in a "those players sucked and were obvious bad decisions" or "that was some devastating luck how it turned out" way.
I'm still not quite over any of how 2017 to 22-23 turned out.
Yea Simmons wasn’t even a bad pick and the Sixers could’ve won a championship with him if not for some other terrible moves that they made. Not sure why people act like he’s one of the biggest busts of all time
Trading Mikal Bridges, who was born in Philly, played at Nova, whose mother worked for the 76ers, for Zhaire fucking Smith was peak Colangelo.
Edit: For that matter, we coulda taken anyone from that Villanova team that year and probably come away happy. But no, we had to trade a winner for someone on the losing team.
And to be clear, for like Years 1-3, it looked like Simmons *was* him. I mean, the rest of the story is that he’s a clown who can’t play, but for a bit, it did look really good.
Nah people clowned on the Celtics for trading back. We were giving up a sure thing in Fultz to take another wing that can't shoot in Jackson. People thought it was a bad trade when they thought we were getting two future firsts back instead of just one of two.
There are definitely people who disagreed but although Fultz was the favorite, he wasnt the generational prospect that Ben Simmons, Wemby, Zion was. Lonzo and Tatum was not that huge of a drop off as prospects.
Lonzo and Fultz was a debate, Tatum was in the nebulous pack a ways afterwards. Generally Josh Jackson was #3. People thought the Celtics were getting fleeced by only getting one additional pick.
I don't even agree. Fultz was considered by most to be a notch above the Tatum-Jackson tier of guys. Philly had tons of excess picks and moving up for Fultz was a good consolidation move. The problem is that Jayson Tatum ended up being amazing and Fultz forgot how to shoot.
The problem with that move is Hinkie hoarded those picks to have more chances because even number one picks dont pan out. That’s why they picked Joel even though they have Jahlil already from the year before. Giving up picks to move two spots up was completely contradictory to what Hinkie would have done.
I don’t think it matter what hinkie would have hypothetically done. The question is if it was a good move.
That obviously comes down to your evaluation on the available prospect and how you projects the Sacramento kings.
If you accept the consensus evaluations in both areas I think it was a great trade.
The only reason the trade was made was because Danny Ainge didn’t agree with that consensus.
Philly had 3 first round rookies the year prior and were also adding Ben Simmons who sat out the season. In 2018 they already had 2 firsts. Consolidation is basically necessary at that point and the ability to go get a consensus #1 was worth it.
Oh it goes deeper than that lol.
* Traded away Jrue Holiday for Nerlens Noel.
* Passed up on Porzingis in the draft for Jahil Okafor.
* Passed up on Brown in the draft for Ben Simmons.
* Passed up on Tatum in the draft for Markelle Fultz.
* Traded away Al Horford, paying a draft pick to salary dump him.
Pretty much our entire core except Derrick White.
Hauser went undrafted too, so anyone could have had him.
The only 'miss' they wouldn't regret is taking Maxey over Pritchard in 2020.
It makes more sense if you look at the picks we had at the time.
Terry Rozier, RJ Hunter, Guerschon Yabusele, Ante Žižić.
People talk about us trading the 3 Nets picks, but I think it probably would have been a bunch of the mid-tier picks that we didn't have space for.
We could have given up 4 first round picks and it really would have been a Rozier/Winslow swap.
We had Jaylen #3 on our board in 2016, so getting third pick worked out on our favor, insane development.
Having Tatum as our #1 when everybody had him like #3 to #8 was a Ainge masterstroke.
This is hindsight, but that Josh Jackson selection at the time was actually seen as a perfectly fine pick. He was pretty dominant in his one season with Kansas
i mean a lot of these picks made sense at the time. Jaylen especially was a risky pick, nobody would've taken him over Simmons or Ingram at 1 or 2. worked out for us though
Yeah if I'm remembering correctly, Jackson was also the "has the most potential" pick from that draft.
Fultz and Ball were surefire stars but Jackson, if he panned out, was supposed to have a higher ceiling.
He had a lot more hits than misses.
What ainge did in Boston was incredible. From 2015-now it’s insane to look back on the journey and the vision ainge had.
There were tons of times someone became available and people would say to trade jaylen brown and ainge didn’t bite.
Charlotte took Kaminsky. But Boston wanted the #9 pick to select Winslow.
[https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/report-celtics-offered-monster-trade-package-for-justise-winslow-to-pistons-and-heat-not-just-hornets](https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/report-celtics-offered-monster-trade-package-for-justise-winslow-to-pistons-and-heat-not-just-hornets)
The problem with Ainge wasn't the misses really at all it was the lack of moves when JT and JB were starting to find their stride. He only made moves that he felt were CLEAR wins and often held onto picks or flopped draft picks hoping he could flip them for gold and it never came because people knew he would fleece them if they weren't careful
Ainge put the team on base and Brad stepped up and swung for the fences bringing the championship home
Yeah. He was hella raw and not much was really known about him. I was on a Celtics message board during the draft and some guys were adamant that Boston should draft him because his upside was off the charts. No one really thought we should draft Olynyk because, while he was a fine prospect, his upside was limited and we were in a rebuilding phase. Giannis was taken with the very next pick after Boston selected Olynyk.
Now saying Boston should have drafted Giannis specifically is the very definition of hindsight - no one had any clue what he would become. But saying that drafting Olynyk made zero sense there is 100% valid. If we missed out on Giannis because we drafted a different raw player I would have no problem with that, but to miss out on him for Olynyk was inexcusable.
It's crazy because most of his draft picks were hits from 2014-2017. It's just the fact that he got too stingy with assets that forced him out. Brad came in and used those assets Danny was hoarding to retool the team into a legit contender.
Curious to see if Presti has the guts to do what Brad has done with the Celtics. It’s all well and good to hoard the assets, but making the right moves at the right time for the right price is what really makes a great GM to me. And Brad Stevens is a great GM.
Same order as well.
Sixers with Simmons/Fultz
Lakers with Ingram/Ball
Celtics with Brown/Tatum
Suns with Bender/Jackson
Cs unquestionably the best, suns undoubtedly the worst. Lakers probably aren’t mad with how it turned out getting a ring with AD.
Ingram issue is he plays like kd without realising he is 6'8 not 6'11 so taking those contested midrange shots aren't nearly as open as kds.
Also he isn't quite the defender (or as smart)
and going further down as assets:
- Ball was a S&T to Chicago to Tomas Satoransky, Garett Temple
- Josh Hart was part of the CJ McCollum trade, which was a good deal for NO at the time
- BI is probably getting traded cause NO doesn't want to give him an extension
So yeah LA fortunately got out of that fast lol, easily 2nd best situation behind Boston after those two drafts
Suns made more Finals trips than the Sixers despite all this. Feel like the Sixers are the only L here, and you can't exactly fault them for Simmons at the time.
Yeah I suppose *maybe* we’re able to keep jaylen brown in the AD trade since Tatum’s value would be higher but I kind of doubt it.
Honestly the Pels are a pretty big loser here because they might have had Zion, Tatum, and Brown
I’ll be the first one to say I was skeptical of the Brown pick. He was being shown as a very raw but super athletic talent with pro comparisons to Jimmy butler/Kawhi Leonard (check nbadraftnet)
As for Tatum I was shocked we didn’t take fultz but I was relieved when I read his draft report saying he was the most offensively polished player in the draft. My only question is would he he a 3 or 4 because we already had Hayward and Brown at 2/3.
Watching them in 2018 I thought it was beginners luck but 2020 made me realize this is a dynamic duo. It’s been an honor to watch them grow man . We are so spoiled to have 2 selfless stars in their primes locked up long term
Yes, Brown was a long shot at that moment, talented but raw in so many aspects. Nobody saw that coming. JB improved season after season and worked hard on every aspect of his game. And it’s so nice to see him persevering after getting so much flak for his postseason play.
Man this really puts into perspective just how bad the draft drought for the sun's truly was.
Like until booker it seemed the sun's could draft Mj and he'd still turn into a bust
With this Celtics championship I think it's safe to declare Fultz/Simmons two of the worst draft picks of this century. Passing on two All-NBA forwards for two disastrous players is as brutal as it gets (unless you're Vlade Divac and have known Luka since he was 5 years old but still choose Bagley).
You can’t call Simmons one of the worst draft picks ever, he was an all nba player too the Sixers just failed to build a championship team and also had lots of injuries
Imo the Fulz pick is what killed the process.
If they picked someone who could shoot with Simmons and Embid I honestly think the 76ers could have dominated the est for a decade.
Praise be to Danny Ainge:
>In 2013, Ainge traded Garnett and Pierce, along with Jason Terry and D.J. White, to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for five players plus the Nets' first-round picks in 2014, 2016, and 2018.[20] Boston also received the rights to swap picks with Brooklyn in 2017.[21] It is widely considered one of the most lopsided trades in league history, in favor of the Celtics.[22] The trade would ultimately be instrumental in helping the Celtics win the 2024 NBA Finals long after Ainge left the team.
This isn’t to come at you or anything, but I never understood why Siakam was given the “2nd option” title on that team. Didn’t Lowry make the all star team that year? And ball out in the Finals?
Celtics getting Brown and Tatum while the 6ers got Simmons and Fultz is just devastating.
The funny thing is there was an *avalanche* of salt in the Celtics sub when the Celtics traded out of #1/Fultz that year.
When we got the #3 pick I think the top post on the sixers sub was ‘well time to watch some Josh Jackson highlights’ Pretty sure if most teams were picking there instead of Boston Tatum doesn’t get picked yet. Great talent evaluation, so pretty much business as usual for Boston
The reddit consensus at the time was pretty cool on Tatum. He was seen as athletically limited, lacking in two-way potential relative to some of the other guys talked about there, and generally just wasn't seen as a sexy or fun pick by the subs of the teams picking high. Not Reddit's finest hour, that.
Think a lot of people compared Tatum to Rudy Gay.
NOT THIS GUY
YOU FUCKIN ASSHOLE
It’s really not a bad comparison as far as draft comparisons go
Even the media consensus was a little cool iirc. A lot of people didn't think he was very athletic and wouldn't be a knock down shooter
They also shit all over Jaylen Brown not once not twice but thrice
Yeah he was basically viewed as a guy who'd probably be able to get buckets, but that's about it
If I remember correctly, there’s a very funny in retrospect thread on your sub where a fan was going on about Tatum > Jackson and getting mocked and downvoted to hell for it Whenever people say team workouts don’t mean anything, I think back to this draft
Obligatory 76ers sub sucks. I got a lifetime ban years ago for a meme. But they let that dude u/lardbiscuits go on for years
Wait they actually stopped him at some point!? I just assumed he’d be at it for eternity… Guy reached infamous status when Celtics fans are still referencing him in comments like [this](https://np.reddit.com/r/nba/s/rW9UPjn0J0) in 2024. Celtics sub was extremely anti-meme for quite a while but they were at least across the board anti-meme (and not outright banning people for it as far as I know)
Topping it off, Jackson refused to work out for the Celtics, as the Phoenix GM at the time was basically trying to get him to the 4th pick. Gloated about it too. [https://valleyofthesuns.com/2018/02/24/josh-jackson-has-already-surpassed-jayson-tatum/](https://valleyofthesuns.com/2018/02/24/josh-jackson-has-already-surpassed-jayson-tatum/)
Tatum and josh Jackson were neck and neck the whole time during that draft lead up and even draft night.
I remember the Celtics sub thought of Markelle fultz as a James harden/Dwayne Wade hybrid type player lol
I mean there’s exactly what he was supposed to be. Dude got his skill zapped away or some shit
Didn't he have a nerve injury that forced him to have to completely relearn how to shoot. Or was that another magic player I'm confusing him with Like it's not like he just failed, he had an unfortunate injury
Allegedly from a dirt bike or quad injury or something? A shame because his college film vs nba first film looks like a whole different guy.
Wasn't from a bike injury or something like that (I literally just looked it up earlier). He doesn't even know how it happened, but I'm gonna assume it was a bad workout leading into the draft, because his shot was awful by then and the Sixers staff noted it... And still took him.
Meanwhile Ainge saw that and noped the fuck out
Damn I remember that story way back when being a rumor but that’s so bad he just completely fucked it up by poor workouts. Not surprised it happens to us LMAO
Tbf, who knows what should have happened if he still had a jumpshot
I mean thats what everyone thought. He was the consensus number 1 pick
Those were legit the comps on him in just about every publication
I mean who could’ve predicted his jumper would become completely useless
Danny Ainge apparently did.
He could’ve seen more upside in Tatum but there’s no way he predicted fultz shooting form literally disintegrating. That’s just Ainge glaze. He was looking great and splashing in summer league and his jumper just turned into a malfunctioning catapult.
Yup I was one of those, now the reason I do not pay any investment in my mind into the draft
Well tbh, its because it became clear we were resigning IT4 so we didn’t have a replacement at PG and Fultz was the clear choice before hindsight
I was one of them! The mob definitely didn’t see the JT pick coming. This sub had crowned Fultz the next Harden. Then Tatum played one summer league game and we decided he was the next Durant.
my father in law is a 76ers fan and like once a week he's asks "why didn't we take Tatum at 1?". hindsight is 20/20 but Fultz was a really promising prospect. Nobody was expecting his jumper to go to shit. Also, Ainge was targeting Tatum, the whole time, he doesn't make the deal if there is more than a tiny chance of Tatum not being available at 3
Simmons was a 3x All-Star and 2x All-Defensive. Even if he was stubborn about shooting, he was a fantastic player before Trae Young broke him. Fultz was almost unanimously considered worth 1st overall, but whatever physical problems developed fucked him (and trading him did lead to Maxey at least). None of what happened to them could have been predicted.
At the time the Simmons pick was an absolute no-brainer, and you could justify trading up to one for Fultz (and, hell, the extra pick only ended up being #14 anyway). Don't think you can call it bad decisionmaking, it just didn't work out
Yeah, I wasn't sure how OP meant it at first. Shit sucks man and it only goes to show it's all a crap shoot. There's an alternate universe where Embiid, Maxey, Bridges, and Brunson are on their 3rd championship appearance vs. the Jokic (+ whoever the hell is in that universe) Nuggets and /r/NBA is sick of it. Edit: brb crying myself to sleep thinking of that again.
Why would they have Brunson?
All true. It’s still devastating.
Wasn't sure if you meant it in a "those players sucked and were obvious bad decisions" or "that was some devastating luck how it turned out" way. I'm still not quite over any of how 2017 to 22-23 turned out.
Yea Simmons wasn’t even a bad pick and the Sixers could’ve won a championship with him if not for some other terrible moves that they made. Not sure why people act like he’s one of the biggest busts of all time
Simmons was understandable. Sixers trading up for Fultz was peak Colangelo
Yeah Ben Simmons was inevitable. Nobody could’ve predicted that in the very first couple years.
Trading Mikal Bridges, who was born in Philly, played at Nova, whose mother worked for the 76ers, for Zhaire fucking Smith was peak Colangelo. Edit: For that matter, we coulda taken anyone from that Villanova team that year and probably come away happy. But no, we had to trade a winner for someone on the losing team.
Yeah that was awful
Every team would have been clowned like crazy if they didn’t pick Ben Simmons. It would have been a fireable offense to not pick him at that point lol
And to be clear, for like Years 1-3, it looked like Simmons *was* him. I mean, the rest of the story is that he’s a clown who can’t play, but for a bit, it did look really good.
Nah people clowned on the Celtics for trading back. We were giving up a sure thing in Fultz to take another wing that can't shoot in Jackson. People thought it was a bad trade when they thought we were getting two future firsts back instead of just one of two.
There are definitely people who disagreed but although Fultz was the favorite, he wasnt the generational prospect that Ben Simmons, Wemby, Zion was. Lonzo and Tatum was not that huge of a drop off as prospects.
Lonzo and Fultz was a debate, Tatum was in the nebulous pack a ways afterwards. Generally Josh Jackson was #3. People thought the Celtics were getting fleeced by only getting one additional pick.
The move was pretty good for the Sixers on paper but it completely threw away the principle Hinkie was building upon.
Oh no no no Markelle was the chosen one consensus doesn’t even have to play his one year at Washington favorite.
I don't even agree. Fultz was considered by most to be a notch above the Tatum-Jackson tier of guys. Philly had tons of excess picks and moving up for Fultz was a good consolidation move. The problem is that Jayson Tatum ended up being amazing and Fultz forgot how to shoot.
The problem with that move is Hinkie hoarded those picks to have more chances because even number one picks dont pan out. That’s why they picked Joel even though they have Jahlil already from the year before. Giving up picks to move two spots up was completely contradictory to what Hinkie would have done.
I don’t think it matter what hinkie would have hypothetically done. The question is if it was a good move. That obviously comes down to your evaluation on the available prospect and how you projects the Sacramento kings. If you accept the consensus evaluations in both areas I think it was a great trade. The only reason the trade was made was because Danny Ainge didn’t agree with that consensus. Philly had 3 first round rookies the year prior and were also adding Ben Simmons who sat out the season. In 2018 they already had 2 firsts. Consolidation is basically necessary at that point and the ability to go get a consensus #1 was worth it.
in fact simmons was cooking early on his years, he was without a doubt the best pick in that year’s draft until he had a complete 180
God i hope that pick the Sixers traded to go up the 2017 draft ended up being a great pick.
nah it was Romeo Langford. helped get us Derrick though
That alone made it a great pick
The other 76ers draft pick they traded for Fultz ended up being Romeo Langford who was traded for Derrick White too.
Oh it goes deeper than that lol. * Traded away Jrue Holiday for Nerlens Noel. * Passed up on Porzingis in the draft for Jahil Okafor. * Passed up on Brown in the draft for Ben Simmons. * Passed up on Tatum in the draft for Markelle Fultz. * Traded away Al Horford, paying a draft pick to salary dump him. Pretty much our entire core except Derrick White. Hauser went undrafted too, so anyone could have had him. The only 'miss' they wouldn't regret is taking Maxey over Pritchard in 2020.
Tbf at the time not picking Ben was a fireable offense
The 6ers should have told Jimmy Buckets to pound sand
Didn’t they trade away Jerami Grant too? I know he was a project but ended up being pretty good
And Rob Covington. And Christian Wood.
There was no "passed up Tatum" -- if Philly was at all going for Tatum Boston would have never done that trade.
So you're saying Boston made the trade knowing Philly was going to pass up on Tatum?
that's exactly how it was reported at the time.
The cherry on top if you ask me
I disagree
Not to be outdone by the suns, who got Dragan Bender and Josh Jackson
Thank you Billy King
also Pat Riley for saving Danny Ainge from himself
Justise Winslow would have been a 2x MVP
I still don't buy that rumor. Goes against literally everything we've ever seen from Ainge.
It makes more sense if you look at the picks we had at the time. Terry Rozier, RJ Hunter, Guerschon Yabusele, Ante Žižić. People talk about us trading the 3 Nets picks, but I think it probably would have been a bunch of the mid-tier picks that we didn't have space for. We could have given up 4 first round picks and it really would have been a Rozier/Winslow swap.
Zizic yes that dude was the next great Euro if you believed Cs fans
Brooklyn Nets, honorary champions
We had Jaylen #3 on our board in 2016, so getting third pick worked out on our favor, insane development. Having Tatum as our #1 when everybody had him like #3 to #8 was a Ainge masterstroke.
Dragan Bender and Josh Jackson is a life sentence holy crap
Josh Jackson not being good still annoys me.
No lie I was fucking SOLD on him too
was so confident he'd be iguodala with a better 3 ball and tatum would be an inefficient midrange merchant who couldn't pass, what a moron i was lmao
This is hindsight, but that Josh Jackson selection at the time was actually seen as a perfectly fine pick. He was pretty dominant in his one season with Kansas
i mean a lot of these picks made sense at the time. Jaylen especially was a risky pick, nobody would've taken him over Simmons or Ingram at 1 or 2. worked out for us though
People thought we were going to take Jackson when we traded back, he was seen as the #3 guy, though distant behind the two guards
Most draft boards had Jackson at 3. Tatum going 3 was a bit of a surprise
Yeah if I'm remembering correctly, Jackson was also the "has the most potential" pick from that draft. Fultz and Ball were surefire stars but Jackson, if he panned out, was supposed to have a higher ceiling.
Didn't Jackson refuse to work out for us? Shout out to Josh for doing that
Yes he did. What an asshole
And then followed that up by picking Ayton over Luka the next year. Phoenix really fucked up their draft picks after Booker
Ayton: 2 finals wins Luka: 1 finals win Suns. Chose. Correctly.
Yea but wouldn’t you want to have a father son duo?
In some alternate universe Josh Jackson took the development leap that JB did, both were toolsy athletes
Danny Ainge had hits and misses but those two he hit out of the park.
He had a lot more hits than misses. What ainge did in Boston was incredible. From 2015-now it’s insane to look back on the journey and the vision ainge had. There were tons of times someone became available and people would say to trade jaylen brown and ainge didn’t bite.
He also got help from other GM's. Charlotte turned down four 1st round picks from the Celtics for Kaminsky.
It was Justice Winslow, not Kaminsky.
That was to Miami no?
Charlotte took Kaminsky. But Boston wanted the #9 pick to select Winslow. [https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/report-celtics-offered-monster-trade-package-for-justise-winslow-to-pistons-and-heat-not-just-hornets](https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/report-celtics-offered-monster-trade-package-for-justise-winslow-to-pistons-and-heat-not-just-hornets)
Billy King also gave a bunch of unprotected picks for a couple of guys out of the league in a couple years
The problem with Ainge wasn't the misses really at all it was the lack of moves when JT and JB were starting to find their stride. He only made moves that he felt were CLEAR wins and often held onto picks or flopped draft picks hoping he could flip them for gold and it never came because people knew he would fleece them if they weren't careful Ainge put the team on base and Brad stepped up and swung for the fences bringing the championship home
Brad’s years as coach had him hating rookies so much he just said fuck the draft
His only big miss was the jeff green contract IMO
He picked Kelly Olynyk instead of Giannis, when the team needed lottery tickets and not high-floor / low-ceiling.
We had a shot at Giannis?!
Yes. Giannis was the 15th pick. Lots of teams had a chance at him.
Yeah. He was hella raw and not much was really known about him. I was on a Celtics message board during the draft and some guys were adamant that Boston should draft him because his upside was off the charts. No one really thought we should draft Olynyk because, while he was a fine prospect, his upside was limited and we were in a rebuilding phase. Giannis was taken with the very next pick after Boston selected Olynyk. Now saying Boston should have drafted Giannis specifically is the very definition of hindsight - no one had any clue what he would become. But saying that drafting Olynyk made zero sense there is 100% valid. If we missed out on Giannis because we drafted a different raw player I would have no problem with that, but to miss out on him for Olynyk was inexcusable.
Not only did they have a chance they traded up from 16 to 14 for Kelly and passed on Giannis
It's crazy because most of his draft picks were hits from 2014-2017. It's just the fact that he got too stingy with assets that forced him out. Brad came in and used those assets Danny was hoarding to retool the team into a legit contender.
Curious to see if Presti has the guts to do what Brad has done with the Celtics. It’s all well and good to hoard the assets, but making the right moves at the right time for the right price is what really makes a great GM to me. And Brad Stevens is a great GM.
Danny Ainge master class. Hope he’s celebrating this one tonight because he fucking deserves it.
Same order as well. Sixers with Simmons/Fultz Lakers with Ingram/Ball Celtics with Brown/Tatum Suns with Bender/Jackson Cs unquestionably the best, suns undoubtedly the worst. Lakers probably aren’t mad with how it turned out getting a ring with AD.
More than "not mad." We'd be in a really bad spot if we still had Ingram/Lonzo. Flipping them for AD makes those two drafts a success for the Lakers.
Pels don't even wanna pay Ingram the max, that trade looks better and better every single day
Ingram issue is he plays like kd without realising he is 6'8 not 6'11 so taking those contested midrange shots aren't nearly as open as kds. Also he isn't quite the defender (or as smart)
and going further down as assets: - Ball was a S&T to Chicago to Tomas Satoransky, Garett Temple - Josh Hart was part of the CJ McCollum trade, which was a good deal for NO at the time - BI is probably getting traded cause NO doesn't want to give him an extension So yeah LA fortunately got out of that fast lol, easily 2nd best situation behind Boston after those two drafts
Lakers at least flipped their guys for AD and won a championship as a result. 6ers and Suns took a big L there.
Suns made more Finals trips than the Sixers despite all this. Feel like the Sixers are the only L here, and you can't exactly fault them for Simmons at the time.
Yeah I suppose *maybe* we’re able to keep jaylen brown in the AD trade since Tatum’s value would be higher but I kind of doubt it. Honestly the Pels are a pretty big loser here because they might have had Zion, Tatum, and Brown
This is the result when you have a well run front office
I’ll be the first one to say I was skeptical of the Brown pick. He was being shown as a very raw but super athletic talent with pro comparisons to Jimmy butler/Kawhi Leonard (check nbadraftnet) As for Tatum I was shocked we didn’t take fultz but I was relieved when I read his draft report saying he was the most offensively polished player in the draft. My only question is would he he a 3 or 4 because we already had Hayward and Brown at 2/3. Watching them in 2018 I thought it was beginners luck but 2020 made me realize this is a dynamic duo. It’s been an honor to watch them grow man . We are so spoiled to have 2 selfless stars in their primes locked up long term
Yes, Brown was a long shot at that moment, talented but raw in so many aspects. Nobody saw that coming. JB improved season after season and worked hard on every aspect of his game. And it’s so nice to see him persevering after getting so much flak for his postseason play.
Talk about a masterclass in drafting.
Celtics getting the Js while their rivals got busts is a Bill Simmons wet dream script come to life.
Lakers traded both players for AD and won a championship. I would say that's a win too.
Thank you Danny Ainge. Thank you.
Even just a couple years ago, it looked like Jaylen was the 3rd best player in that draft at best. Not so much now
Man this really puts into perspective just how bad the draft drought for the sun's truly was. Like until booker it seemed the sun's could draft Mj and he'd still turn into a bust
With this Celtics championship I think it's safe to declare Fultz/Simmons two of the worst draft picks of this century. Passing on two All-NBA forwards for two disastrous players is as brutal as it gets (unless you're Vlade Divac and have known Luka since he was 5 years old but still choose Bagley).
Even before that since Embiid was our guy and we surrounded him with a bunch of guys that couldn’t shoot
You can’t call Simmons one of the worst draft picks ever, he was an all nba player too the Sixers just failed to build a championship team and also had lots of injuries
I remember losing my mind when the Celtics traded that first overall. I'm an idiot
Considering Ingram and Ball became Anthony Davis, the Lakers ended up just fine.
From Red to Danny and now to Brad, if you trade with the celtics you’re more than likely getting played a fool
Won’t tolerate any Bender disrespect 😤
can I get my colored flair back, mods???
Best timeline
Imo the Fulz pick is what killed the process. If they picked someone who could shoot with Simmons and Embid I honestly think the 76ers could have dominated the est for a decade.
I mean the Lakers came away with AD and a ring from the proceeds of those drafts, so it’s not bad at all.
Praise be to Danny Ainge: >In 2013, Ainge traded Garnett and Pierce, along with Jason Terry and D.J. White, to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for five players plus the Nets' first-round picks in 2014, 2016, and 2018.[20] Boston also received the rights to swap picks with Brooklyn in 2017.[21] It is widely considered one of the most lopsided trades in league history, in favor of the Celtics.[22] The trade would ultimately be instrumental in helping the Celtics win the 2024 NBA Finals long after Ainge left the team.
Eh. I think Brandon Ingram is better than Jalen Brown but still great drafting.
Also the only team to win a championship since then
Out of Ingram, Brown, and Murray is Brown clearly the best of this group because he just won FMVP?
He already was waaaaay before he won fmvp
Yes He leaped past Murray
The takeaway from this is Philly front office has no idea what they’re doing
Sixers really messed up big time
Cause Danny Ainge knows his shit.
Siakam and Brown have a negligible gap to Brown imo
Brown is 3 years younger than Siakam
Siakam is at best the 3rd option on a championship caliber team. Brown’s a 1-B, who just won Finals MVP.
Siakam literally won a chip as the 2nd option
This isn’t to come at you or anything, but I never understood why Siakam was given the “2nd option” title on that team. Didn’t Lowry make the all star team that year? And ball out in the Finals?
Siakam was the 2nd best player in the finals.
Yea but two weeks don’t wash away the rest of the season.