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Danny Ainge hired as CEO of basketball operations

Gameface said:
Man I just went to KSL and read the comments on this story...

99% are head over heels in love with this move.

Sometimes I feel so out of touch with my own community.
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You encountered the BYU blind homer crowd. Which is what this team is becoming. Hopefully not to a fault, but I'm a little worried about that.
 
What I found funny about the ESPN article is that they stated Danny Ainge is well liked in Salt Lake City. I spit out my milk when I read that. Not that I needed any evidence but ESPN is clueless about the Jazz and Utah. My concern is that sometimes having friends around is great but not at work. Time will tell. I think Ainge does some things well but how do we know how he is going to build relations with Justin and Quinn when he can go directly to Ryan. I will keep an open-mind but this could go south fast if Ainge and Ryan allow their friendship into business matters.
 
NAOS said:
That’s a very one-sided view of Ainge that actually isn’t supported by the spectrum of reports.

And DL wasn’t fired because of how opinionated he was. He was squeezed out because his opinions clashed with Quin’s. There’s a difference there.
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Maybe I missed all the stories where everyone is singing his praises, but in recent years he's built up quite the reputation and that doesn't come from nothing. Some of it is probably overblown, sure, but there are not very many GM's that have a negative reputation for a variety of different reasons like Ainge does.
 
cowhide said:
What I found funny about the ESPN article is that they stated Danny Ainge is well liked in Salt Lake City. I spit out my milk when I read that. Not that I needed any evidence but ESPN is clueless about the Jazz and Utah. My concern is that sometimes having friends around is great but not at work. Time will tell. I think Ainge does some things well but how do we know how he is going to build relations with Justin and Quinn when he can go directly to Ryan. I will keep an open-mind but this could go south fast if Ainge and Ryan allow their friendship into business matters.
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It's looking like that is the way Ryan does business so I'm pretty sure you can just expect that.
 
From Ryan and Ainge's press conference comments that I read, it sounds like the intent is to continue to have JZ do what he's doing. If my general impression of Ainge is correct, he is probably too arrogant and controlling to really just let JZ do his job.

We'll see, my impression might be way off.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
DL was fine and laid a good cultural foundation. Got a couple home runs on draft picks as well. It’s the finish work and long term planning I had issues with. Either he was saving pennies and space when we could make pretty obvious additions that would help or he spent like a dumbass in his last year and didn’t seem to care about the long term.

JZ isn’t a guy I’d want to build the program from the ground up but he absolutely executed what we needed this offseason with precision. I have one small quibble but will leave that for another day. I hope he stays with us because he’s been pretty impressive thus far.
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There are a lot of things to criticize DL for, but I do think people take the positives for granted. I mean...we were championship favorites during the second round and pretty much the entire rotation was from the margins. It always amazed me how quick we were to overlook that or just chalk those acquisitions up to luck. At times it felt like we were weighing something like the Matt Thomas miss to trading for and drafting Donovan Mitchell. Insane to me lol. At the end of the day I think you have to look at how great of a shot we have to win championship this year and the same for last year. Even if he wasn't batting 100% you got to appreciate how rare the opportunity is to even have a shot at winning the title.

I don't really know what to think about JZ because we don't really know what he did or how much input he's had over the past couple of years. The cap debacle was really bad, for example, but was that really 100% Lindsey? It can't be right? I think everyone in the FO should hold some shame for that one. A lot of teams seem to have a dedicated cap guy, but I don't know who was for the Jazz. Seems like JZ was the first guy everyone talked to and he's good relationships, which makes sense because he was a player agent first.

Nothing that happened this summer gave me a strong opinion one way or the other. I think signing Gay had more to do with the existing great team and players than the GM. Whiteside was a great find, but I think our reputation as a winning team also had an impact on that one. But he deserves some credit there because a lot of people would have said no to Whiteside even if Whiteside was begging to be here. Ainge I'm uncertain on. It's been said that we're due for a lot of change in the near future, I hope he makes the right moves and doesn't almost make the right moves.
 
fallenchicken said:
Not crazy about this. It was always going to happen. But I wouldn't be surprised it it leads to Zanik finding another gig at some point, and he's the one who's really put this team together, the best team in the history of the franchise imo. Well, him and Lindsey.
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I don’t know but I think we may be looking at this all wrong. I don’t think it’s Zanik so much as Snyder that’s in the hot seat. This is the guy that’s shown he’s not afraid to do the dirty work necessary to make a team better and take them to the next level. Smith knows what he has here, I don’t think 1st and second round playoff exits are going to be tolerated moving forward.

Finally a championship pedigree in the house. This dude won the Wooden MVP in college. He's tough as nails….he even tackled a cat named Tree Rollins that was maybe the biggest baddest cat before Shaq hit the scene.

My hope though is a kind of Pat Riley oversight role. Hearing Butler on the Reddick podcast about the culture in Miami and how involved Riley is. How successful that franchise has been. And our own Miami connection, not to mention the storied career in tinsel town; yeah, count me excited!
 
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SoberasHotRod said:
From Ryan and Ainge's press conference comments that I read, it sounds like the intent is to continue to have JZ do what he's doing. If my general impression of Ainge is correct, he is probably too arrogant and controlling to really just let JZ do his job.

We'll see, my impression might be way off.
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I think it's safe to say that people at this level do not like having someone step on their toes...Whether that's someone under or below them on totem pole. I'm betting that everyone said nice things in MIL when JZ was passed over for the job, but the reality is that he's probably out of here soon just like he was out of MIL and DL was out of HOU when they passed him over for Morey.
 
KqWIN said:
There are a lot of things to criticize DL for, but I do think people take the positives for granted. I mean...we were championship favorites during the second round and pretty much the entire rotation was from the margins. It always amazed me how quick we were to overlook that or just chalk those acquisitions up to luck. At times it felt like we were weighing something like the Matt Thomas miss to trading for and drafting Donovan Mitchell. Insane to me lol. At the end of the day I think you have to look at how great of a shot we have to win championship this year and the same for last year. Even if he wasn't batting 100% you got to appreciate how rare the opportunity is to even have a shot at winning the title.

I don't really know what to think about JZ because we don't really know what he did or how much input he's had over the past couple of years. The cap debacle was really bad, for example, but was that really 100% Lindsey? It can't be right? I think everyone in the FO should hold some shame for that one. A lot of teams seem to have a dedicated cap guy, but I don't know who was for the Jazz. Seems like JZ was the first guy everyone talked to and he's good relationships, which makes sense because he was a player agent first.

Nothing that happened this summer gave me a strong opinion one way or the other. I think signing Gay had more to do with the existing great team and players than the GM. Whiteside was a great find, but I think our reputation as a winning team also had an impact on that one. But he deserves some credit there because a lot of people would have said no to Whiteside even if Whiteside was begging to be here. Ainge I'm uncertain on. It's been said that we're due for a lot of change in the near future, I hope he makes the right moves and doesn't almost make the right moves.
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The last paragraph is why I think sometimes DL may have gotten lucky.... once you are good the other stuff is easier... so you shouldn't screw up that stuff. He did the hard part of getting the top tier talent (JZ had a role in that with Conley and Bogey by all accounts). Its the stuff where you go "what the hell?" that should have been easier to nail. Just like JZ taking Butler this year in the draft... do the obvious thing... don't draft two centers who can't shoot... take a shot at a wing or the obvious guy. Don't roll the full MLE out for a backup center with iffy health history for the feel goods... especially if the salary situation about to get iffy.

JZ did the obvious and kinda easy stuff this offseason... its an easier job than getting the all-stars in the door... do if DL was awesome why did he eff that stuff up so spectacularly?

I think DL is a great guy to have to build a culture and program... I think Houston or NO should consider bringing him in. I am not sure what to make of the last couple years of his tenure... was he lucky? did he get lazy? did he see the writing on the wall and say eff it?

Overall he left us soooooooo much better than he found us. So I thank him for his service.
 
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