What's new
By:

Jazz hire Celtics Assistant GM Austin Ainge as new President of Basketball Operations

I’m excited. Danny’s kid has done a great job in Boston and had tons of success. I also thinks he understands Utah and as someone with a great rep around the league can sell Utah to other good players. This isn’t just some kid hired off the street being some unknown. His resume speaks for itself. I don’t get the hate?
 
This isn’t just some green daddy’s boy getting a shot. Grew up in the life, was a good college player and coach and helped develop a championship level team.

Building a team isn’t an exact science
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
I just have a hard time taking the "nepo baby" thing seriously when it comes to Austin Ainge.

This isnt an Atlanta Hawks Ressler situation where someone who has absolutely no basketball experience is making decisions because of their dad.

Ainge put the work in as a rotation player for a good college team, coached at the college level, and has been a part of a successful NBA franchise for over a decade.
Click to expand...
Dude, for all of his coaching career Austin was pulled forward by daddy. After his college graduation he spent a year as an assistant coach at Southern Utah (which he most likely also got through his dad's connections) and in 2009, 2 years after graduating he was already coaching the Maine Red Claws, the G-League team owned by the Celtics. Less than 2 years after he was teleported as a top executive of the Celtics and was consistently promoted. Now his dad gets him the next top job at Utah.

He is a classic definition of a nepo baby who after college immediately shoots through management layers like a rocket because his dad is a CEO. Yeah, I bet he was so head-and-shoulders above all other candidates to go in 3 years from being a student to Director of Player Personnel at one of the most storied NBA franchises.
 
Thee Idiotic Minivan K said:
Back end of the draft doesn’t necessarily mean second round. And he’s found gems at the backend of the draft. Which is something the Jazz haven’t done. That’s what separates good teams from title contending teams.
Click to expand...
With that said, I think Danny has gotten great value with his “backend” picks so far. Relative to draft positioning, Sensabaugh, Collier and Filipowski all look like great picks right now.
 
I have no real opinion positive or negative here. I get the Nepo baby claims but has a long enough track record that I think he’s “earned” his stripes. Who knows who does what in front offices so… not sure he has a traceable track record. Let’s see what happens and judge from there.

I do think JZ was more a relationship guy and maybe not an architect type. Clearly a demotion but he may be fine with it. Dont think this is a DL situation where he’s an “advisor”.
 
Thee Idiotic Minivan K said:
Back end of the draft doesn’t necessarily mean second round. And he’s found gems at the backend of the draft. Which is something the Jazz haven’t done. That’s what separates good teams from title contending teams.
Click to expand...

Has he really though?

Pritchard/Hauser/Grant Williams/Robert Williams in more than a decade of work for guys past pick 20 that've done anything in the last 15 seasons. Hauser an UDFA.

Gobert is so far above those dudes it's insulting to have to mention him. Hood/Grayson Allen/Royce weren't particularly worse. Those are the notable late 1sts or later I can think of from a similar period for DL.

The best Boston FO work in the last decade was 1) Correctly IDing Tatum as *the* guy from that draft 2) Acquiring undervalued vets (Jrue/White/Horford/Porzingis)

Their late draft work has really been nothing special and it's weird that the Utah press releases are focused on it.
 
gomretat said:
I care a lot less about the Nepo issue than I do that the Jazz are bringing in someone who will undoubtedly continue with the same philosophy that has put us in the toilet and created the loss of a lot of fans. This is Ryan doubling down on something that has not gone well at all IMO.
Click to expand...
yall are so ****ing weird
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
I have no real opinion positive or negative here. I get the Nepo baby claims but has a long enough track record that I think he’s “earned” his stripes. Who knows who does what in front offices so… not sure he has a traceable track record. Let’s see what happens and judge from there.

I do think JZ was more a relationship guy and maybe not an architect type. Clearly a demotion but he may be fine with it. Dont think this is a DL situation where he’s an “advisor”.
Click to expand...

There’s really no way to know if he earned his stripes. I’ve seen a lot of people say his experience disproves the nepo claims, but that doesn’t really address the nepo concern. If you believe he’s a nepo baby, you’re also likely to think his experience came from nepotism and those stripes were given to him. If he hadn’t been hired by his dad, we wouldn’t have to ask these extra questions what was earned and what was given. If he had been hired by a different franchise or we hired someone else's son you'd at least have a little more comfort. But on the other hand, you also don't have to worry that he's just some random child of important person like Vivek did with his daughter.

I'm mostly neutral, but those questions are valid. Like you said, you just have to see what happens from here. One concern I had about Danny Ainge is that he's getting older and might want to pull the trigger quickly and rebuild impatiently. So in that sense I'm happy we have a succession plan in place. If I were a MIA fan, for example, I'd be more at peace if I knew that Pat Reilly wasn't making calls based on his own timeline. Extending Hardy + Hiring Austin Ainge signals we're in this thing for the long haul.
 
Big game hunting! LOL

What an utter joke. Can't think of many things more embarrassing than first becoming the laughing stock of the league and then a safe landing spot for the nepo baby of a failed executive.

HadAnEffectHere said:
Rewarding Ainge by hiring his son after Ainge's pretty catastrophic last few years is... something.
Click to expand...

This. Unbelievable.
 
Last edited:
Saint Cy of JFC said:
No, having unrealistic expectations for a rebuild is weird. It takes time, especially when the luck side of things (lottery odds) dont work out in your favor.
Click to expand...

I mean, the thing is that the team intentionally put themselves in a rebuild instead of trying to be an OK playoff team at the 2023 deadline.

And the only reason to do that is a Finals or bust thing.

But the way to do that as a small market is to get a ton of young players who all develop quickly into stars or valuable role players while still on their rookie contracts.

That, or get a player on the level of Giannis or Jokic.

The Jazz uhh, aren't succeeding at all in either approach. Kessler, Filipowski, and Hendricks are their only young players with any real potential, Kessler is about to get signed to a huge extension and Hendricks is going to be on his second contract before we can judge him. None of them have star potential. Meanwhile, the Jazz are running out of relevant future picks to be able to do the OKC strategy of just a billion guys on rookie contracts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top