Tag: Danny Ainge

Ainge, who was out scouting college …

Ainge, who was out scouting college tournaments in Las Vegas when the NCAA and NBA games were stopped, hasn’t been tested for the coronavirus. Actually, around the Celtics, just the players and a few support people have. But only Marcus Smart has tested positive, and all others are doing well and are practicing proper social distancing. “I feel great,” said Ainge, whose medical history includes two mild heart attacks — one in 2009 and another during last year’s playoffs. “I feel fine. There’s been no symptoms at all, so that’s good. And I haven’t had contact with anybody from our team since, like, March 1st or 2nd.”

“I’m in communication with people in …

“I’m in communication with people in the organization, including players, every day,” he said. “I think they’re doing really well. I mean, guys have their workouts. They’ve requested stationary bikes and weight and weight vests and bands so they can do all sorts of their workouts that our trainers are giving them. So, yeah, I think everybody’s following all of the rules, staying quarantined, and just keeping to themselves. It feels like, in my conversations with everybody, that they’re all doing well. They all seem pretty upbeat. I’m just trying to keep them motivated.”

Quarantine Celtics Day 7: no football for Smart, mini-hooping and more

We’re keeping up with the Boston Celtics as they self-quarantine in response to the coronavirus pandemic currently suspending the NBA season.

On day seven with no basketball, a lot of us are getting withdrawal, and the Boston Celtics have evidently started seriously considering playing other sports.

That last bit may be a bit overstated, but it’s hard to say in this new, coronavirus-induced reality we’re living in.

While rumors of a scaled-down charity game come falling from the lips of NBA commissioner Adam Silver, we’re over here watching clips of our favorite players while dreaming of real games.

But like the rest of us, the Celtics are making due online as well, so let’s take a look at what’s been keeping them busy.

Team President Danny Ainge has been enjoying the sweet serenade of some of the Celtics younger fans, their country renditions an excellent coping mechanism to being cooped up indoors.

He’s also open to the idea of guard Marcus Smart looking into a multi-sport career, which probably shouldn’t surprise given he was a Toronto Blue Jay before he ever played a minute in the NBA.

Smart, for his part, is into the idea — and evidently had an amateur career in football with some…unusual participants.

Assistant GM and team counsel Mike Zarren had to be the killjoy, but it was fun while it lasted.

Rookie Romeo Langford has been keeping in shape by playing ball himself, though something tells me this won’t do too much for his conditioning.

And forward Semi Ojeleye is making the most of the extra time afforded him by the suspension of games to dive into video games even deeper.

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Second-year center Robert Williams III is retweeting fans who have a shine for the Timelord…

While rookie forward Grant Williams is pushing his new podcast with two way center Tacko Fall (which you totally should check out if you haven’t already).

And last but not least, center Vincent Poirier has been expressing his dismay with his fellow countrymen (and women) disregarding social distancing directives being advised around the world.

So don’t disappoint Vinny Sexpants, and stay inside to help flatten the curve and protect the elderly and other high-risk groups.

If there’s Boston Celtics action on social media, we’ll be sure to post it here — just stay in if you can, and take care no matter what.

Be well, all.

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On this day: trio of Celtics St. Patrick’s Day wins, Bob Cousy retires

The Boston Celtics have a trio of outstanding wins over the last dozen years on St. Patrick’s Day; it’s also the 57th anniversary of Bob Cousy’s retirement.

The Boston Celtics have had St. Patrick’s Day off more often than not over the last decade or so, which is probably fitting given the roots of the team in Boston’s Irish-American community.

But they’ve also had three impressive wins on that day since the start of the “Big Three” era of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, two of which belong to the iterations of the Celtics with that trio on the roster.

The most recent such win, in 2017 against the Brooklyn Nets, saw a young Celtics roster emerging from a rebuild secure a tight game with a huge game from forward Jae Crowder.

The Marquette product scored 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go with 12 rebounds to lead all scorers 9 of his total coming in the final frame alone.

Crowder leading Boston to a 98-95 win came despite point guard Isaiah Thomas resting for knee soreness, the Georgian stepping up in his absence.

Boston also beat the New York Knicks on that day seven years earlier, winning 109-97 with an excellent effort from Paul Pierce (29 points) and help from KG (22 points).

It was the most points the duo had combined for that season, both having missed considerable time in the second half of the season to injury.

“There were a lot of toos out there,” Knicks head coach Mike D’Antoni said at the time (via the Associated Press). “They were too big, too quick, too good, and the road trip a little too long”.

And finally, in the season the Celtics hung Banner 17 — 2007-08 for you reent fans — Boston defeated the might San Antonio Spurs 93-91, with a balanced outing from Pierce (22 points and 8 boards), KG (21 points and 8 rebounds) and point guard Rajon Rondo (20 points and 6 assists).

Reserve guard Sam Cassell added 17 points and 5 boards off the bench in the come-from-behind win against the then-defending champions.

“The Spurs, they’re a well-oiled machine. We knew they were going to come in fired up. They lost some games as of late and any champion is going to come out with its haymakers,” said Garnett at the time (via ESPN).

It is the 57th anniversary of the retirement of Celtic great Bob Cousy, who left the game at 34 in a ceremony held at Boston Garden famous for a fan breaking Cousy’s awkward silence in his emotion-choked retirement speech by shouting, “We love ya Cooz!”.

The legendary Boston point guard even received a message from then-president John. F. Kennedy stating, “The game bears an indelible stamp of your rare skills and competitive daring” (via author Gary M. Pomerantz in The Last Pass).

Cousy would win seven titles with Boston, be elected the league’s Most Valuable Player and would get 13 invitations to the NBA All-Star games, one of the greatest to play the game and a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Today is also the 61st birthday of team president and former Celtics two-time champion Danny Ainge., and former Boston and current Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier, who is 26 today.

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Happy birthday, Danny Ainge

Today is Boston Celtics team president and former player Danny Ainge’s 61st birthday – we hope it’s a happy one.

Today is the 61st birthday of Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge.

Ainge was born in Eugene, Oregon in 1959, and by the time he was wrapping up his high school career, had become the first person in history to be an All-American recruit in football, baseball, and basketball.

He would play college ball at Brigham Young University, and would win the John R. Wooden award among several honors in his time there. He would also play for the Toronto Blue Jays in Major League Baseball for three seasons before entering the 1981 NBA Draft.

Boston, of course, would draft him with the 31st pick, and the future team president would go on to win two championships with the Celtics and an All-Star bid with the franchise in 1988.

In 1989, Ainge was traded to the Sacramento Kings, and then again to the Portland Trail Blazers the season after, making it to the 1992 NBA Finals.

He would sign with the Phoenix Suns in free agency the season after, and retire as a player at the end of the 1994-95 season, making the jump to the front office as Suns head coach in 1996, lasting until 1999.

Ainge then would accept the job as Boston’s GM in 2003, winning Banner 17 with the organization five years later, continuing in the hunt for another right up to today.

Happy birthday, Danny.

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Danny Ainge explains not picking up available free agents for playoffs

Danny Ainge isn’t prepared to make any moves to pick up available free agents for the Celtics’ playoff run.

In general manager Danny Ainge’s eyes, the Boston Celtics do not need to pick up any available free agents for their playoff run.

Per an article from Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, Ainge explained why he hasn’t made moves to pick up players who have recently been bought out or other free agents like Jamal Crawford, who has waited to be signed since last summer.

“It’s my impression that they’re rarely as good as people think they are,” Ainge told the Herald. “A lot of people, including myself and coaches and players, think that a player is still what he was two or three years prior or that he can return to a time of (when he was a) better player. But there’s always a reason why players are available.”

The Celtics as currently constructed have a legitimate chance at coming out of the Eastern Conference.

With their collection of wings in Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics have a triad of scorers and ball handlers. Add Kemba Walker onto that, and the Celtics make for one of the most difficult teams to defend on the perimeter.

This season the Celtics are shooting 36.4% from the 3-point line, ranking 11th in the NBA. Among teams that are over .500, the Celtics rank sixth in 3-point percentage, with the Utah Jazz sitting at the top.

The Celtics will play the Jazz in TD Garden on Friday at 8 p.m. EST.

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Danny Ainge is ‘not too concerned’ about player health going forward

Despite an unexpected resurgence of the ‘Hospital Celtics’ this week, Boston team president Danny Ainge isn’t especially worried about his team’s health.

Boston Celtics team president made his weekly appearance on Toucher and Rich Thursday morning, and spoke at length on the surprise return of the Hospital Celtics.

Boston had been trending towards returning to full health after starting point guard Kemba Walker had been cleared to play on a balky knee that had kept him out from the 2020 NBA All-Star Game to the Mar. 3 overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Second-year reserve center Robert Williams III was about to return from a severely bruised hip that had him out since early December as well. Then, things started to go sideways in the health department.

Guard Marcus Smart and forward Jayson Tatum came down with a bug, and forward Gordon Hayward hyperextended his knee against Brooklyn. In the same game, shooting guard Jaylen Brown pulled his right hamstring.

Still, Ainge is unfazed.

“I’m not too concerned about any one player, I think everybody’s going to be fine within a week-ish or less,” he told the hosts. “But, I’m not really sure what the update is today.”

When asked specifically about Brown and Hayward, Ainge replied about the former first.

“Jaylen has a strained hamstring, and those just are a little bit scary to have. We don’t really want to mess around with it. He’s had that before years ago in the playoffs, and came right back and played. But, we’ll probably give him some time off and make sure he’s healthy.”

Regarding the Butler product, Ainge said, “Gordon had a hyperextended knee-type situation, and got bumped into the knee,” tactfully omitting it was teammate Daniel Theis who accidentally collided with the Indiana native.

“I think he’s feeling better yesterday, but I’m not really ready [or] prepared to tell you when he’s going to be back,” added Ainge, “but I think he’s going to be fine.”

As far as injuries go, while it’s no fun being down several key players just as Boston starts to dig in to the stretch run in the battle for the East’s second seed, they are all of a very short-term and hopefully minor nature.

Ainge is correct in his assessment that there isn’t much cause for concern now, as these are the types of problems it’s best to proceed cautiously with in order to avoid a recurrence in the postseason.

Don’t be terribly surprised if Brown in particular gets longer than a week off to let his hamstring heal completely.

The toughest remaining games in the schedule sit right across this coming week during which the Cal-Berkeley product will be out, with games against the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers waiting.

In fact, with the earliest game Brown could return for the Mar. 12 road game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the rest of the schedule is almost devoid of teams with winning records.

In fact, with only two remaining games with the Miami Heat and one each with the Bucks, Pacers and Toronto Raptors, it won’t surprise to Hayward sit as well against his former team on Friday as well — if not longer.

The schedule will have plenty of nights for players to play limited minutes and rest when called for in order to gear up for the postseason without sacrificing too much risk at losing the two seed to the Raptors as a result.

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“We just felt that Jayson had a chance …

“We just felt that Jayson had a chance to be a very, very good player that would fit well into our culture,” Ainge said. He wouldn’t comment on Fultz, but went on to praise Tatum. “What I love about Jayson is he is driven to become great. You can work on all sorts of technical things, but if a player doesn’t have that mental edge to become great—to have that determination of figuring out the things that you aren’t doing well—it’s not going to happen. And you know, Jayson has really high expectations of himself and really high goals for his life in basketball, and that’s what I appreciate the most.”

Ainge gives updates on buyouts, Walker, Timelord on Toucher and Rich

Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge gave fans an update on buyout prospects and the health of point guard Kemba Walker and center Robert Williams III on his weekly Toucher and Rich appearance.

Boston Celtics team president gave fans an update on the Celtics’ near-term plans this morning on the popular local sports radio talk show Toucher and Rich during his customary weekly appearance.

With March 1st just around the corner, a few key issues loom for Boston going forward, and the Celtics head honcho shed some light on the franchise’s thinking regarding them.

The chief concern on everyone’s mind is the buyout deadline that arrives with the month of March.

The NBA requires that any player joining an NBA roster must have been bought out by the end of the business day on the first of the month if they wish to play for that team in the postseason.

While there have been several names connected to the Celtics through nostalgia or a superficial analysis of the team’s situation, few actually-available names ought to be moving the needle.

Others which might actually be worth making a move for — and the player who’d need to be cut to roster them — have yet to be bought out and may well not be, a holding pattern explained by Ainge on the show.

“If we see a move that will help us, we’ll do it,” said Ainge (per Yahoo Sports’ Keith Smith), noting that, “fans might be too hung up on what familiar names did in the past” as a not-so-subtle admonishment to temper expectations for an Isaiah Thomas or Evan Turner reunion.

A lot of that has to do with the difficulty of cutting a player who might be able to contribute as well as many of those options, and sometimes as younger, cheaper players in the case of reserve wing Javonte Green.

Others, like center Vincent Poirier, have multiple guaranteed years to consider while also filling a position of need.

Recent hints at rotation players starting to find their offensive legs is another, which Boston’s team president hinted at, saying “our team and our depth is shaping up well.”

The other big thing coming with the arrival of March is the potential return of second-year center Robert Williams III, who has sat since Dec. 9 with a hip injury.

In some ways, there’s a chance Williams can be part of the needed growth for the bench, helping shore up the comparatively thin frontcourt while perhaps picking up where he left off in developing an away-for-basket jumper.

Ainge believes Williams will return as soon as this weekend or soon after so long as his final scan comes back clean.

And as far as health concerns go, the team president joined All-Star Kemba Walker and others in downplaying concern for the UConn product’s knee.

Ainge said, “We are confident that his knee is going to be fine and he’ll be ready to go at some point in the near future,” per Boston.com.

This reflects the level of concern — measured, not panicked — demonstrated by the Charlotte Hornets (his former team) in 2016 when a similar issue flared up — likely to the relief of Celtics fans everywhere.

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Why the Boston Celtics are in no rush to retire Ray Allen’s jersey

There are quite a few members of the Boston Celtics organization, past and present, who would be against the move.

The Boston Celtics have retired 22 numbers, more than any other organization and when they retire the jersey of 15-time All-Star Kevin Garnett in the 2020-21 season, that number will jump to 23.

Suffice it to say, they’re an organization known to pay homage to the players that helped bring them a league-high 17 NBA championships. However, while the Celtics will retire the jersey of two players who were the cornerstones of their last championship team, there’s a third member who may not receive that same honor.

Per Boston.com’s Jenna Ciccotelli, the Boston Celtics’ decision of whether or not to retire Ray Allen’s No. 20 jersey will be impacted by Allen’s decision to leave the Celtics for the Miami Heat in 2012.

To be fair, it makes perfect sense why Boston would have misgivings about retiring Allen’s number despite the role he played in bringing the Celtics a championship in 2008.

Despite Allen leaving four seasons after Boston won their championship, his exit from the Celtics left a sour taste in the mouth of many of his former teammates — most notably Garnett — and the fans as well. After all, Allen left for a team that defeated Boston in Game 7 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals; a move seen by many as defecting to enemy lines.

Unfortunately for Allen, it would appear that at least one of the franchise’s primary decision-makers was miffed by his departure as well.

Though team president and general manager Danny Ainge makes it clear he still has a positive relationship with Allen and an appreciation for the Hall of Fame shooting guard’s tenure with the Celtics, he says of a potential jersey retirement for Allen that “these are not my decisions.”

“So if someone asks my opinion on this, I’ll weigh in at the appropriate time. But this is [Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck]’s team and he gets to make those decisions.”

That said, it would appear that Grousbeck would be at least one of the members of the organization — and one with the most influence — who is against retiring Allen’s jersey.

In fact, with Celtics forward Gordon Hayward wearing the No. 20 jersey that used to be donned by Allen, there’s a chance that the team would prefer it for the number to remain active and another player to give them a reason to retire it.

Though the move may seem to be an act of retaliation, franchise’s often retire jerseys for the most respected members of the organization. Quite frankly, that description doesn’t apply to Allen, who has yet to get on speaking terms with notable players from the 2008 championship team, including Garnett, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins and Glen “Big Baby” Davis.

Allen and Paul Pierce, who was the last Celtics player to have his jersey retired in TD Garden, have buried the hatchet but that obviously doesn’t mean that others are.

There’s no rush to pay Allen a respect that quite a few would disagree with but, with the 10-time All-Star now enshrined in the Hall of Fame, there are worse things that could happen. Maybe the Heat will retire his jersey as a consolation, in respect for his efforts in bringing the team a championship in 2013, although the jerseys of players like LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem would have to be retired first.