While the Utah Jazz have been bad this season, no one thinks that's because the front office hasn't been doing their job—far from it. In fact, the Jazz have positioned themselves well for their future, which could end with them getting Cooper Flagg or another golden prospect from the 2025 NBA Draft Class.
Of course, they will have to play their cards right for the next few years to reach their desired level, but they have time. CBS Sports' Sam Quinn ranked the Jazz as the fifth-best front office in the NBA, and for more reasons than just what they've done since blowing up in 2022.
Quinn specifically cited Danny Ainge's successful executive history as the reason the Jazz have a fantastic front office.
"Danny Ainge built a champion and perpetual contender in Boston," Quinn wrote. "...this is the GM who drafted Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Trust the track record. Virtually every move this front office has made has been in service of perhaps the NBA's slowest rebuild, but that rebuild is in great shape. Ainge and (Justin) Zanik have the tools they'll need to build a winner, and their histories suggest that they'll do so."
It does seem odd to give the Jazz's front office high marks for Ainge's success considering the only winning results he's gotten came from the team he used to manage. At the same time, because his fingerprints are all over the reigning NBA Champions, it's hard not to see the similarities between the Jazz now and the Celtics several years ago and think Ainge doesn't know what he's doing.
Ainge helped assemble two separate championship teams in Boston
Even though they are the winningest franchise in NBA history, the Celtics were not all that impressive when Ainge took over the front office in 2003. He even shocked their fanbase when he traded star Antoine Walker away.
At the same time, the Celtics were a playoff team, but they had reached their ceiling with Walker. Ainge didn't want a playoff contender. He wanted a title contender, and four years later, he assembled one when he acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
He lucked out a little that former teammate Kevin McHale was more motivated to deal Garnett to Ainge, one of his best friends in the NBA, and the team he used to play instead of the Lakers, who arguably had the better trade offer. Nonetheless, Ainge built a team that won a title and was in the conversation for five years.
The similarities are right there. He didn't want the Celtics to be above average like the Jazz were when he came over in 2022, so he made some drastic changes. Success didn't come immediately, but playing the long game led to a title.
Better yet, Ainge used that same strategy to pull the plug on those Celtics teams with Garnett when it was clear they weren't title contenders anymore. That led to drafting Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. That put them in the title conversation for years, which led to a championship.
Ainge's strategies have proven to be the right ones. In fact, there's an argument to be made that Boston would have more titles right now had not infamous Jazz alum Gordon Hayward not broken his leg half a quarter into his tenure with Boston.
The Jazz likely won't be in the title conversation for a while, but that's a path they should be more than comfortable to take because Ainge's track record speaks for itself. It's why the Jazz are right to trust him, and why their front office is justifiably considered one of the best in the NBA.