Danny Ainge has a plan that will bring the Celtics back to the glory days of the 80s

By: Matt Burke

Posted: 4/27/04

This past Sunday, painful basketball was on display once again as the NBA continued it's hilarious joke of a playoffs. Two of the most storied franchises in the league, the 16-time World Champion Boston Celtics and two-time World Champion New York Knicks, thankfully had their respective pathetic seasons end in four-game sweeps.

It would be an understatement to give these two teams the old, "Oh how the mighty have fallen" comment and it's downright sad that neither team fields a decent product these days.

When the Knicks are good, there is no place more magical than Madison Square Garden. When the Celtics are good, the "green people" come out in numbers and the FleetCenter begins to feel like the Boston Garden.

Both teams were in the playoffs, but neither should have been. While New Yorkers and Bostonians don't agree on much in the world of sports (other than booing the crap out of Derek Jeter these days), one thing they can agree on is that their NBA franchises play an eyesore brand of basketball.

The futures of both of these once-proud franchises look dim as they both have GM's that have, thus far, looked very inept at running a professional franchise. However, there is an extremely small light at the end of the tunnel for one of these teams and not much hope for the other.

Danny Ainge has a plan, albeit a sketchy one. Isiah Thomas has already executed his plan and it's a horrid one.

Thomas has mortgaged the Knicks' future on shaky grounds. While he should have just blown up the mess left by Scott Layden and cleared salary cap space for the likes of Kobe Bryant (whose Laker days look numbered), or Tracy McGrady (who desperately wants out of Orlando) he instead went for a quick fix, discounting the scary long-term side effects.

He took on the contracts of Stephon Marbury and Penny Hardaway. Dillusional Knick fans were excited. The hometown hero Marbury was coming to New York and everything was right in the world. The team went on a nice little win streak fueled by nothing more than MSG nostalgia and then inevitably hit the wall as they stumbled into the playoffs.

Marbury is your classic "guy who thinks he can carry the load, but always comes up a bit short" (much like his jumper). He's always on the bubble when it comes to true "All-Stars" in the league and for good reason...he's not on that level. He's not on the level of a Garnett, Kobe, McGrady, Duncan or Kidd. The aforementioned are players that can take over a playoff game. Marbury has never proven that he could do so, despite ample opportunity. He had the opportunity to prove nay-sayers wrong this year against the Nets, but he once again missed big shots down the stretch (see Game 3).

And that's not to say Marbury was the sole reason the Knicks lost, because it most definitely was not. When they inherited Hardaway, they inherited Ken Griffey, Jr. in shorts. The one time heir to Michael Jordan's throne is nothing more than a marginal player these days and I dare the Knicks to try and trade this guy because they will find absolutely no takers. He's just another big name player with a big time contract and diminishing skills (sounds familiar with Allan Houston still on the payroll).

Thomas, who has already done incredibly horrible jobs with Toronto and Indiana (as coach), may have saved his best (or worst depending if you're a Knick hater or lover) for last. It's tough to recall such a great player who had such a disaster of a time in his post-player career. Thomas has dug the Knicks a bigger hole and one that they won't be able to climb out of for the foreseeable future. They will have the same mediocre team for the next three-plus years and there is no ingenious tradeable way out of it.

Meanwhile in Boston, Ainge has found a way to go from being the hero shooting guard on the 1986 Championship team (aka the greatest NBA team of all-time) to the most hated man to grace the parquet floor since part-time snake oil salesman, Rick Pitino. During a ceremony in January Ainge was present to honor former teammate Cedric Maxwell during halftime of a Celtics game. When Ainge was introduced to the FleetCenter crowd he fell victim to boo's usually reserved for the Bill Laimbeer's of the world.

Needless to say, Celtic fans don't think he's doing a great job. However, in terms of the future, things could be worse (look at the Knicks).

The Celtics are getting Raef LaFrentz back from a knee injury (all reports say he could have played through it but Ainge told him to shut it down in December in hopes of the Celtics tanking the season). Fans that complained about the LaFrentz/Antoine Walker trade need only to look at the Mavericks right now to realize Walker has done nothing but hurt one what was one of the most exiting teams in the NBA. Walker wanted a maximum contract and Ainge wouldn't have it. He knew Walker was on the lesser scale of NBA stars (like Marbury) and giving him a max contract, which other teams would have, would have been insane for the Celtics future. If they had kept Walker they would be nothing better than a 3-seed in the East and would possibly get to an Eastern Conference Finals once in a while. Hey they might have even made it to the Finals one year, only to be crushed by the West. But Ainge doesn't want to be very good in the East. He wants to be very good in the league. He wants a Championship contender and by keeping Walker they would never have been able to get there (cap space being reason No. 1, his shot selection No. 2).

In fact, Ainge is trying to model the Celts after those same Western Conference teams that are winning right now. He wants to win with an up-tempo team and if the Celts are to get there they were obviously going to struggle in their transition from the "chuck em up 3-point barrage" team they were before.

Right now they have three first round draft picks in the 2004 draft (of which Ainge is rumored to be shopping to move up). This gives them some flexibility.

They have a player in Ricky Davis who gets a bad rap for his attitude but has been very productive in his time with the C's. He hasn't complained like he did in Cleveland and his fast break approach is exactly what Ainge is looking for. He provides a nice scoring option to compliment Paul Pierce, who (unlike Marbury) is already one of those upper-echelon NBA stars.

It will also be interesting to see what Ainge does this off-season with the head coaching postion. Paul Westphal is the perfect choice as he can coach uptempo and has a history with the Celts as he won a championship in 1974 with the Green. Doc Rivers is another possible choice.

So if Ainge can do damage with the three first round picks he has this year (it's being called a "deep draft"), get a rejuvenated Raef LaFrentz, get Paul Pierce to have the type of season he had in 2000-02, keep Ricky Davis' head on straight, use the huge cap space left by the departed Vin Baker wisely and develop the up and coming talents of Jiri Welsch and speed demon Marcus Banks, Celtics fans may begin to cheer Ainge instead of unmercifully chastising him.

It's alot of "ifs," but when the going gets tough, the Celtics can just look over their shoulder in New York and thank the basketball gods that they don't wear blue and orange. Because the jury is still out on the future of Ainge's Celtics. Isiah and the Knicks have already dug their own grave.