Surprise! Danny Ainge No. 1 GM According To System Named After Him

Danny Ainge created a reputation for himself as one of the most crafty minds among executives in the modern NBA.

That was why Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach on Monday revealed what he called “The Danny Ainge System” to rank the top NBA executives using baseball Sabermetrics.

“It is inspired by Ainge’s stint with the Toronto Blue Jays and the similarities between Daryl Morey’s brand of team-building and Billy Beane’s Moneyball,” Rohrbach wrote Monday.

It was a very thorough examination of every executive’s transactions, and there were clarifications, too. There was a note of context playing a key part in evaluations. The Boston Celtics’ trade down from No. 1 to No. 3 in the 2017 NBA Draft was received well for good process but got a slight downgrade since one of those picks turned out to be Romeo Langford, who didn’t earn consistent minutes in Boston.

There were three categories with top-five rankings, and Ainge ranked first in the trades category. But the top overall rankings were of the most interest.

Brad Stevens, who succeeded Ainge as Celtics president of basketball operations in 2021, made the top 10 at the No. 9 spot. Stevens received favorable grades for his trades for Al Horford, Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon. And his draft and free-agency decisions mostly received neutral grades with the exceptions of Dennis Schroder and Danilo Gallinari, who were viewed as misses.

Who took the No. 1 spot on the “The Danny Ainge System?” The namesake of the system himself. That’s right, the process of trying to find out who the best executive in the league yielded the namesake of said process.

“Hey, look at that: Danny Ainge, the NBA’s top executive, per The Danny Ainge System. Feels right,” Rohrbach wrote.

If you take a look at Ainge’s entire résumé, it’s hard to argue against him being No. 1. He hit big in the draft, knew where to find trade value and made smart signings. He wasn’t perfect, but his best moves helped the Celtics win the title in 2008 and why the Utah Jazz are one of the league’s most exciting young rosters.

It’s just hard not to laugh about the exercise of creating a system, naming it after a specific executive and ranking said executive No. 1.