| Ainge has some tough decisions to make with this team going forward, and how he handles them could cost him his job |
As one of the NBA's most established and successful franchises, the Boston Celtics aren't accustomed to mediocrity and are used to winning, especially since the summer of '07 when they added Ray Allen (now with the Heat) and Kevin Garnett to their roster. Of course, they would go on to beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals that season, reigning in the new era of Celtics basketball with some early success. However, this is clearly not the same Celtics team from the 2007-08 season and is one hovering around the .500 mark, a sign of terror for everyone involved with the organization.
Much was said before this season that the significant age of Boston's best players (referring to Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett) was an issue the team's front office, specifically GM Danny Ainge, a former Celtics star himself, had to address. Well, it turns out that it has been an issue, but Ainge and his staff haven't really addressed it at all, and it has undoubtedly been a factor in the team's slow start. Even still, with his squad at 14-13, Ainge holds onto the belief that he doesn't have to alter the roster in any way and that the players just have to improve.
From a Boston Herald piece:
“We don’t need to make a change. We need to get better. So between the players and the coaches and the management, we’re all working together to try to figure out how to get better.”
Asked if he is confident that the roster he has assembled still can be successful, Ainge paused and said, “I’m uncertain. I want to see more."
"I want to see more before I know. I’ve been uncertain the last few years, and they give me a lot of reason to be uncertain."
“But then they turn around and show what they’re made of and what they have inside of them. So I want to give it more time.”
In Ainge's favor, charting the course of a big market franchise like the Celtics is an incredibly difficult job to perform successfully so his indecision is somewhat acceptable. However, if he doesn't decide on a course of action soon, Boston is gonna fall even further down in the standings, its fans are going to get disgruntled, and the players are going to get frustrated with the front office. Obviously, it's up to him what to do but he has to act fast with what he chooses to do as waiting too long to do the right thing may be worse than doing the wrong thing in the short-term.
