We’re not the only ones thinking Kevin Durant is a possibility

A GM’s job is to build a title contender. Mainly, that’s done through the draft, trades and attracting free agents — but it also involves hiring the right coach and even relatively mundane things like building a good front office team, hiring good trainers, shooting coaches, etc. It’s right to put a lot of weight into draft performance but you’re putting far too much weight into it.

There are 30 GMs in the league but only 6 have built title contenders in the last decade. We’re using the term ‘GM’ loosely here since Danny is actually the Celtics’ PoBO and so is Pat Riley with the Heat. It’s also arguable that only the Celtics (Danny), Heat (Riley) and Warriors (Myers) GMs have built their winners because, let’s face it, the Lakers (Dr. Buss), Mavs (Cuban) and Spurs (Pop) have other figures in the organization who probably have equal or greater say on basketball decisions than their respective GMs. That’s pretty obvious with the Lakers, who’ve been rudderless since Dr. Buss passed away.

Danny has had exactly 3 lottery picks in the last decade (2014 and 2007 and 2006). In 2006, his series of moves ultimately yielded Rondo, who was essential to the Celtics’ 2008 title and was an All-Star (and All-NBA defensive player — easy to forget these days) 4 times. He turned the 2007 pick (Jeff Green, whom he eventually got back — and who is still a useful NBA player, unlike Perk) into a cascade of deals that brought around title 17. With the 2014 pick, we have Smart. You may hate Marcus Smart’s shooting and flopping but his value over replacement (2.4) in his first two seasons is BETTER than Carmelo Anthony’s (2.2) or Jimmy Butler’s (2.2) during the same periods in their careers.

Every knowledgeable basketball fan is aware that after the lottery, it’s a crapshoot — Danny has been choosing outside the lottery for much of the past decade and while the C’s have had busts like Fab Melo and Jajuan, they’ve also had solid picks like Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger. As for Rozier, Hunter and Mickey — the jury is still out, isn’t it? So far, all 3 have shown that they should become solid NBA rotation players, which is about right for the spots they were drafted at. Were there better talents? Sure — I would’ve like Booker over Rozier — but I’d prefer to wait at least 2 seasons before passing judgement.

Heck, even within the lottery, you can have huge busts. The Cavs still haven’t won a title despite getting 3 number 1’s and having Lebron back. Philly still looks like crap.

Besides, and like I said in my earlier post, Danny has done as well a job with rebuilding the C’s from the remnants of the KG-Pierce era about as well as anyone could have expected. The C’s have Stevens, a solid core and multiple (valuable) draft assets, possibly until 2021. The outlook is good enough that it’s not even patently ridiculous anymore to picture Durant coming here (though it is probably not happening).

Sure, Danny missed on guys like Draymond, Parsons and Jimmy Butler — but a lot of guys did and with Parsons, it looks like a brain fart occurred somewhere since Parsons himself has mentioned that the C’s had told him (or his agent, I can’t recall) that they were going to pick him.

Given all this, I’m willing to give Danny the benefit of the doubt. He has given Celtics fans a lot to look forward to. That you’re expecting him to ‘choke’ is your own personal bias. You’re certainly entitled to it. I just don’t think that we can judge Danny solely by his draft acumen.