Danny Ainge Reveals One Player He Regrets Not Drafting With Celtics

Danny Ainge hit on a good amount of draft picks during his 18 years as Celtics president of basketball operations.

Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kendrick Perkins and Marcus Smart fill up the list. But there will always be the one that got away, and for Ainge, it’s Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler.

The Chicago Bulls took Butler at 30th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft, which was just five selections after Ainge used Boston’s pick on Providence guard MarShon Brooks. While Butler went on to become a six-time All-Star, Brooks played in just 10 games for the Celtics — coming after he rejoined the franchise in the infamous Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trade to the Brooklyn Nets — and was out of the league by 2019.

“He was a late first-round pick and he was seriously in our thoughts of drafting and we went in another direction and Jimmy turned out to be a great player,” Ainge said on the “Pardon My Take” podcast two weeks ago. “That’s probably the one I regret the most.”

Two years after passing on Butler, Ainge moved up three slots in the 2013 NBA Draft to select Kelly Olynyk. It just so happens that Giannis Antetokounmpo went two picks later.

But that decision doesn’t haunt Ainge nearly as much as missing on Butler.

“Giannis was different. It’s hard to regret,” Ainge said. “I saw Giannis play like three months before the draft, maybe fourth months before the draft and I liked him. I loved his enthusiasm for the game. And then I saw him in the Summer League, he’s like three inches taller, like he actually has muscle to his arm. It was incredible just the transformation over that time. But what a great story Giannis is.

“I went over to Greece to watch him play and he was a joy to watch. But never in a million years could I imagine him being the MVP, NBA champion that he’s become. It’s fun to see.”

Even with Ainge not drafting Butler or Antetokounmpo, he still did alright for himself as he got the Tatum and Brown picks right. The star-studded duo became the pillars of the Celtics franchise by leading them to two NBA Finals appearances in three seasons.