C’s Danny Ainge no fan of losing - New draft proposal worth look

BOSTON HERALD 

Wednesday, December 25, 2013
By: Steve Bulpett

NOT FEELING THE DRAFT: If Danny Ainge had his way, NBA teams wouldn’t be able to lose their way into a high draft pick.

Danny Ainge can only shake his head and nod.

The Celtics president of basketball operations understands all the discussion of planned losing that has accompanied his team’s every step since it brought in the heavy reconstruction equipment last summer. Indeed, playing to the current rules, Ainge has set up these C’s to take a shot at the 2014 NBA lottery.

So as Ainge opens his gifts this Christmas morning, there may well be dancing in his head visions of unwrapping a high pick in May when the draft positions are set.

But in terms of basketball morality for the NBA, Ainge has come to believe the defeatist talk has reached a critical mass around too many teams. He isn’t happy that even when his young Celtics play well and show encouraging signs, much of the postgame talk among fans is about the need to lose to create a better chance at a higher pick.

“There becomes too much emphasis on losing, and I don’t really like that, that there’s all this talk about losing,” Ainge said. “At the same time, I understand it’s the world we live in and it’s the system that is set up. I wish we had a better system that wouldn’t reward losing like this, but I understand the system that we’re in and I understand the challenges and difficulties of changing that. But I would hope they would look into that at some point.”

In fact, Ainge and the Celts have been looking into it for the better part of two years.

The intriguing and radical new draft proposal released this week through grantland.com is a local product. The system, which uses a formula to have teams picking in each of the 30 positions over a 30-year span, is the creation of Celtics assistant general manager Mike Zarren.

The plan Zarren devised would, for example, have the team picking first one year choose 30th, 19th, 18th, seventh, sixth, 25th, 23rd, 14th, 11th and second in the next 10 drafts.

“That would make sense to me,” Ainge said. “It would put an onus on management to manage their team and their draft picks. They would be able to just play and not worry about maneuvering to get a draft pick. Every 30 years, you’d have the first draft pick. Every 30 years, you’d have the second pick, and so forth. Look at it this way, you’d be in the top six every five years.”

The proposal has been discussed in the upper reaches of the league office and could be submitted to owners some time in the new year, though even those involved in its creation believe it has a very small chance at success at this time. Their hope is that it will be judged on its merits and, if the ancillary problems with the present lottery system persist, that it could be seen as a viable alternative.

“Maybe owners won’t ever agree to it because, they like the fact that if they’re not winning they can sell their fans on the hope that there might be something good around the corner in the draft,” Ainge said. “But maybe teams wouldn’t be falling so far out of it if there was a better system.”

It’s clear that Ainge likes the measure of certainty and opportunity for better long-term planning that comes with the Zarren proposal.

“I wish you just knew, OK, this year I’ve got the 10th pick,” he said. “Next year I’ve got the 17th pick. The year after that, I’ve got the third pick. The next year I’ve got the 29th pick. There doesn’t need to be a lottery, a draw. Nothing needs to be based on losing. I think the only complication at all would be just how you start the process and when. Obviously draft picks have been traded through the end of this decade, so it couldn’t begin until all that was cleaned up.

“But you could plan with it. When you traded for draft picks, you’d know exactly what draft picks you’re getting. You wouldn’t have like 20 pages of explaining draft picks and what’s protected and who might be getting it.”

Even though Ainge and the Celtics have done well with the present setup, turning the No. 5 pick in 2007 into Ray Allen and getting Rajon Rondo (by draft night trade), Jared Sullinger and Tony Allen in the bottom third of other dispersals, he is ready for a change.

“I just feel like there’s enough parity in the league, with the new collective bargaining agreement and the new tax system, that small market teams have every bit the chance to win as the big market teams,” Ainge said. “And there’s the revenue sharing that’s going on, which helps even things out, too. With all that, I believe that if we just gave out draft picks instead of order of finish — just assigned them — it would work out better on a lot of different levels.”

That would include removing the question of whether on any given night a team would be better off losing.

“There are just all sorts of things that are in the current system that don’t work and don’t put all of the focus on winning, which is where it always should be. I just don’t like that teams are being rewarded for losing. I don’t think that’s good for ownership. I don’t think it’s good for fans. I don’t think it’s good for players and coaches, anybody in the business.”

Which is why Ainge is supporting a plan that, as regards the draft, would redefine the concept of business as usual.
112288

112288,

I hope you and the family are enjoying a great Christmas.

Sam

Thank you Sam......and a very Merry Christmas to you and Sally...may you have good health and happiness in 2014 .  Karen sends her love to both of you as well....remember to call Steve at the Celtic offices to order your ticket for the March 1st game.

Love to all,  Rich

112288

I won't forget.

Sam