Celtics Danny Ainge - lessons learned in building a Championship Team

Danny Ainge has three Championship rings, two as a player and one as an executive. He has learned how to build a championship team, and he may be about to do that again.

Lesson #1: Stockpile draft picks

Ainge learned this from his mentor, the late Celtics mastermind, Red Auerbach. Danny wasn't part of the Celtics organization yet, but he learned to stockpile draft picks from Auerbach's near-larceny of 1980 (per Wikipedia):

After the 1979-80 season, Auerbach completed what may be the most lopsided trade in NBA history. Auerbach had always been a fan of stockpiling draft picks, so even after the success of 1979-80 the Celtics had both the 1st and 13th picks in the 1980 NBA draft left over from…