Fans can’t deal with it
Boo C’s pick when Ainge fails to trade
It was quite literally the longest draft night of Danny Ainge’s career as a general manager, and also daunting once season ticket-holders at the Garden draft party started booing the selection of California freshman Jaylen Brown with the No. 3 pick.
Ainge, unable to swing trades with Chicago for Jimmy Butler or Philadelphia for Jahlil Okafor, took the least popular option. He used the pick, and followed up by drafting a pair of Europeans with Nos. 16 and 23. Most party-goers didn’t remain for the second round.
“There was interest in the pick, but I never know how close we are,” Ainge said of trade discussions. “There was a lot of discussion and no deals. We pulled away from some and they pulled away from some. But we still have free agency, and a lot of money to spend to build our team.”
The Garden crowd’s response to Ainge’s first choice, and his inability to deliver a trade with the No. 3 pick, was akin to how New Yorkers greet unpopular draft picks — like Kristaps Porzingis — with loud displeasure.
But just as Brown told media in New York that he was ready to prove all of the cynics wrong, Ainge sounded confident the young forward could contribute immediately.
Comparing him generally to a pair of rookies from last season — Detroit’s Stanley Johnson and Miami’s Justise Winslow — Ainge played up Brown’s ability to contribute physically right away, and downplayed the poor shooting year he had as a freshman at California.
“A lot of good shooters can have bad shooting years, especially when that’s during their freshman year in college,” said Ainge. “We’re very fond of Jaylen. He has a man’s body, and we think he’s the kind of player who can play with the big boys right out of the gate.”
None of these projections mattered to the early night Garden crowd. The season ticket-holder party was loud, heavy with boos, as Wyc Grousbeck tried to explain the pick, and the lack of a trade.
“We had trade talks all day, but we did not make a trade,” said the Celtics coowner, as shouts of “We want Jimmy” came out of the Garden crowd.
As in Butler, the Bulls forward the Celtics were still attempting, and failing, to secure in a trade even as Grousbeck was speaking. Selling the crowd on Brown, an explosive but raw 6-foot7 athlete who should eventually be able to play both forward positions, wasn’t going to be an easy process in the midst of such unbridled anticipation.
Grousbeck talked about Brown’s superb workout for the Celtics staff in Waltham, and his unusual maturity for a 19-year-old. Despite two days’ worth of reports about Ainge’s talks with other teams regarding the third pick, with a potential deal with Philadelphia rising and falling several times in the course of the day, Grousbeck said the Celtics couldn’t “sniff” a good deal.
The Celtics then went international with their next two picks, using No. 16 on French power forward Guerschon Yabusele and No. 23 on Croatian big man Ante Zizic, with the disappointment still loud. It was the worst, according to Grousbeck, in his 14 years as Celtics owner.
Ainge traded his top two second-rounders — Nos. 31 and 35 — to Memphis for a 2019 Clippers first-round pick. The Celtics wrapped up with Notre Dame point guard Demetrius Jackson at 45, Providence forward Ben Bentil at 51 and Iowa State’s Abdel Nader at 58.
“But I’ll view this as people really care,” said Grousbeck. “I’ll view it as I’ve certainly had some of those reactions too when I’ve been at sporting events. Pay your money, you get to come in. Look, we’re a bunch of fans who bought the team.
“And being a fan means you’re emotional and you’re emotionally invested in the team,” he said. “And no problem. But I actually believe that, if those fans knew what I knew and were in that room, I think most of them might have done the same thing. But no problem. Bring it on. They are Celtics fans and they’ve earned the right to say whatever they want.”
What they wanted, more than more promising young players, was a way to improve the Celtics in the short term, with deeper runs in the playoffs envisioned.
Butler rumors continued to circulate, including an ESPN report that Minnesota coach Tom Thibodeau was attempting to trade with the Bulls for the player he brought into the league.
But the Celtics were one of the most active teams on the trade front this week. Most of the offers from other teams for the third pick, according to Grousbeck, were “ripoffs.”
They were engaged for a long time in talks with Philadelphia, which was attempting to unload Nerlens Noel and multiple picks instead of the much more offensively gifted Okafor.
Ultimately the Sixers didn’t get a crack at their goal — Providence point guard Kris Dunn, who was taken fifth overall by Minnesota.
With the boos now in the other room, Grousbeck made another attempt to sell people — this time the media — on Brown.
“We did improve. We’ve got a young piece,” he said. “Adding a veteran was certainly a consideration as we went into this draft day; adding a veteran for the third pick was a consideration. We were willing to have those discussions, but nothing even came close.”