Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge made an appearance on “The Big Show” on Salt Lake City’s 1280 The Zone on Thursday afternoon, and he had some interesting thoughts about the Celtics’ rebuild, draft lottery reform, and his memories of playing with Larry Bird.
Ainge said that as this season progressed, “the picture became a little bit clearer of which direction we needed to go.” But he said he has enjoyed watching the development of this team. He also had high praise for Brad Stevens, saying he “couldn’t be more excited” about the second-year head coach’s development.
“He’ll continue to improve because of his intelligence, his integrity and his work ethic,” Ainge said.
Ainge said that reforming the draft lottery is one of the biggest challenges facing the NBA, but he acknowledged there is a fine line between shifting the current setup while maintaining a system that discourages teams from sabotaging their seasons to secure a higher pick.
“I don’t envy the commissioner and his office on this issue,” Ainge said. “They’re studying and they’re communicating. They’re watching and observing what’s’ going on, and I’m confident that they’ll come up with the best plan in time to rectify some of the challenges.”
A partial transcript of Ainge’s wide-ranging interview is below. Listen to the entire conversation, in which he also talks about the Hawks, Steph Curry, the Jazz and his BYU memories, here .
On the Celtics’ rebuild:
“Well, we came into the season with a little bit of uncertainty. We could have gone in a couple different directions, but as the season progressed, the picture became a little bit clearer of which direction we needed to go. And we made some trades and got younger, and we acquired a lot of draft picks over the last couple years. And we have a lot of assets and we’re trying to build our young core.
“I don’t know, I mean, sometimes you don’t need to take it apart. I mean, we certainly have because of the age of our four guys over the last six years and the run that we had with KG [Kevin Garnett] and Paul [Pierce]. We hoped that we wouldn’t have to take it apart and I don’t think we’re taking it apart; I think we’re just building a championship. I guess it’s semantics, but we are playing a lot of young guys and they’re playing well and it’s exciting for our fans and it’s been fun for me to be part of it. I’m enjoying watching the development of our guys. I love our coaching staff. I think they do a great job and I think we have an exciting future.”
On Brad Stevens:
“Oh, Brad is, he’s fantastic. You know, he has a work ethic that’s unmatched. He’s learning the NBA game all the time. He’ll be better next year and the year after. He’ll continue to improve because of his intelligence, his integrity, and his work ethic. I couldn’t be more excited with Brad.”
On lottery reform:
“The No. 1 thing with the draft is to help the weaker teams become better so there is more parity in the league, more equality, but at the same time the league now is addressing issues of teams playing for the draft. It’s a tough balance. I don’t envy the commissioner and his office on this issue. They’re studying and they’re communicating; they’re watching and observing what’s’ going on, and I’m confident that they’ll come up with the best plan in time to rectify some of the challenges.”
On the biggest challenge the NBA faces:
“It used to be small markets vs. the big markets. There was a lot of complaining about that and it seems like the new collective bargaining agreement has addressed a lot of those issues. You see a lot of great young small-market teams that have developed through the draft. You see Cleveland has done it through free agency and the draft in the past, and San Antonio is, you know, a model franchise in the NBA now, and a dynasty. And I think that right now one of the issues is this draft issue. The lottery has become a big-time issue and getting transcendent players is a challenge that 30 NBA teams are trying to accomplish, and yet there’s probably not 30 transcendent players in the NBA, and that’s an issue.
On Larry Bird:
“It was great playing with Larry. He’s hard to describe, but coming out of college I always thought I was a very confident player. But I’ve never been around anybody like Larry. He was extremely confident. He believed so much in his own abilities and what he could accomplish at the most crucial times of games against the very best competition. But he brought out the best in all of his teammates, not only by his work ethic and intelligence, but his extreme confidence I think just elevated the confidence of our entire team.”
76ers at a glance
■ When, where: Friday, 7:30 p.m., at TD Garden.
■ TV, radio: CSN, WBZ-FM (98.5).
■ Scoring: Tony Wroten 16.9, Michael Carter-Williams 15.0, Robert Covington 12.8.
■ Rebounding: Nerlens Noel 7.2, Carter-Williams 6.2, Henry Sims 5.4.
■ Assists: Carter-Williams 7.4, Wroten 5.2, Larry Drew 3.8.
■ Head to head: This is the third of four meetings this season. The Celtics won the first two.
■ Miscellany: The 76ers are last in the league in scoring at 89.8 points per game, and average 84.8 on the road, also last in the league . . . Philadelphia is 3-7 in its last 10 games . . . The 76ers have not won on the road since Jan. 9 at Brooklyn, a span of seven games.
Follow Adam Himmelsbach on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.