Boston Celtics director of player personnel Austin Ainge has a knack for finding diamonds in the rough.
Boston Celtics director of player personnel Austin Ainge is good at finding players other teams haven’t done their homework on.
Son of team president Danny Ainge, he’s not the sort of front office hire just there because he happens to have the right parent to have landed the gig, and the Celtics’ track record finding undervalued prospects highlights that point.
There are of course misses, but few have hit home runs bigger than Boston’s deadly young wing duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, and there’s plenty of singles — to stick with the baseball metaphors — worthy of mention as well.
Forward Semi Ojeleye has become a productive player despite being a second-round draft pick, and two way point guard Tremont Waters may well have played his way into a regular season deal in 2020-21 even though he was drafted near the end of the second round.
Two way center Tacko Fall may also, and he wasn’t even drafted.
Rookie forward Grant Williams has already shown he can hang with the starters in key moments, and Daniel Theis — whom Ainge helped convince to join Boston — has been a critical part of the team’s success this season.
How did Ainge manage to determine these were the players need?
“We saw them earlier than some of the undiscovered types,” Ainge said of Brown and Tatum (via the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn).
“We heard their names starting at 15, 16 years old. Jayson was very skilled as a young player and had great touch and footwork and obviously size, and his basketball IQ stood out. That was a great thing to just build on,” he added.
Ainge also was wise enough to see the context of the pair, recognizing what they’d need to be successful as players at the next level.
“As a young player, [Brown’s] physical tools, so fast and strong and explosive, and all of the background work we do on these guys, both of these kids passed with flying colors … Coming up, their coaches liked them, their teammates liked them, and they are hard-working kids.”
“So that gives you the confidence that they will continue to improve,” Ainge added.
It might not seem so obvious in hindsight, but there were serious questions about Tatum’s ability to shoot the NBA 3-pointer, and concerns Brown would top out as a high-end role player lingered until the start of this season.
They seem foolish now, but Ainge and the rest of the Celtics front office were wise enough to realize that ahead of most.
And it’s not just physical gifts that they look for.
“It’s really competitiveness, work ethic, and personal habits,” he explained.
“We see guys get caught up in the life. We see guys who don’t continue to work and who don’t strive to be great after they’re already good and make a little money. You want guys that stay hungry. There’s no secret to being able to guess that.”
“You just do as much work as you can and hope these guys prove you right in the end, as both Jayson and Jaylen have,” Ainge added.
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