>into his lap.

Ainge is a good GM, he has a clear but flexible approach. I don't get the backlash toward him, any other GM that could put together the big 3, hose the Nyets, make a great outside the box coaching hire and now land the top FA by a mile and an all-star point guard in the same offseason is a good GM, period.

>There was no way he was giving IT a $200+mil max deal he just
>had to figure out how to move the best player and heart & soul
>of a first place team and not have the fans completely revolt.
>Kyrie was the perfect solution, another similar star guard
>just as good if not better than IT, but 3 years younger and
>cost controlled for an extra year. If they believe in Jaylen
>and Tatum then Crowder had to go too. Cleveland was pushing
>hard for Tatum to be included in the deal so he had to throw
>in the pick as well.

Yup, exactly, where were Crowder's minutes? A 15-20 minute a night guy now with diminishing prospects in the future. I think had this deal not come up, they would have ridden out IT and probably moved him after he signed his next deal. Great timing for them for Kyrie to tell Cleveland to fuck off though, that part was certainly fortunate, and their newfound depth at the three (wouldn't have happened if they didn't trade down, which also made this pick expendable) let them match contracts without losing anything significant from their rotation.

>So Danny was basically able to do something almost unheard of
>which was reboot and rebuilt a first place(but flawed)
>conference team on the fly. The Celtics may take small step
>back for a year or so but are better suited for the long haul.
>The consensus thinking among GM's around the league seems to
>be to basically punt for the next year or 2 while the Golden
>State juggernaut runs its course. The Boston fans will be
>patient because they have an exciting young player in Kyrie to
>go along with Heyward, the white star they've been thirsting
>for since Bird blew his back out 25 years.

That's the thing, too, they managed to get two lotto picks who don't have any real pressure on them thanks to this situation and the two stars they added don't have a ton of mileage and are arguably still improving. Pretty impressive. I think Hayward is underrated if anything, he is not a Kevin Love stat-stuffer type, he is efficient and still improving because he was a relative late-comer to basketball. Irving will need to make some adjustments but he has more than enough talent to thrive here. Nobody ever accused him of a lack of confidence. The only issue I see with Boston in their bigs, giving Horford another contract would probably be a mistake and they don't have a ton of talent there. Then again they have Brown and Tatum in the fold and if both pan out they could move one for a big.