Though it is about the most complimentary assessment of his deal-making a sports executive can receive, Danny Ainge is not, as the The Athletic reported a Cavaliers player called him over the winter, “a [expletive] thief.’’
Sure, most of the Celtics president of basketball operations’ recent trades have turned out to resemble heists, especially a certain pair of megadeals that had a seismic effect on the franchise in all the right ways.
But he’s craftier than your common front-office conman. He’s not selling snake-oil – he deals in quality and quantity – but he has an uncanny knack for getting more in return.