Danny Ainge Quotes

An agent won't help you get drafted higher, won't make you win more games, and won't make you faster or stronger. They all say they can, but the people who do the drafting don't talk to agents. They talk to coaches, they watch film, they talk to the people who've worked with players. They don't talk to agents.

We discussed buying a defender. The view was the priority at that time given the way we were playing was that we needed support up front and that is why we bought Louis Saha.

Look at how a caretaker has worked for the England rugby team in the Six Nations - they've done fantastically. Everyone's got an edge. No one's sure of a place, and everyone has an incentive. So I'd back the FA if they decided not to go for a full-time manager yet.

The problem with my guys, all my guys, they come in and improve themselves so fast in college: they go from 'He's this and this' to 'That kid is the first pick or second pick. Four. Five. Seven.' Tell me about those teams: not great. So my guys are walking into bad situations.

I think it's pretty unique to see a coach adjust to the talent he has and maximize the abilities of players he has and help them keep growing.

Every team in the league is always looking to upgrade its talent.

We as a club should be aspiring to have the best players playing for us. We've had that in the past. We're in for players if the manager wants to be.

If you're happy being at a big club but playing reserve team football, I never really understand that.

We have to talk about the players we have.

When a scout recommends a brilliant right back or a coach recommends one from our academy, we want the manager to weigh up what is right for the team.

Duke recruits the best basketball players. They don't recruit dunkers or highlight makers. They recruit good basketball players.

I think it's normal that you will lose players if you don't play every season in the Champions League, because that's the intention for every player to be part of that.

Every manager is different in one way or another, but what stays the same is coaching Barcelona players - players who want the ball, who want to be protagonists on the field - so each manager who's been here has been able to take advantage of that, and, luckily, I feel we've become more complete because of it.

Teams want the best players. If the best players come through your academy, you can play.

When you sign players who are young and hungry, that's good for the side.

I think teams make the same decisions every year based on the same information and based on the same decision-making. I think a lot of it is flawed, but it's the way they draft.

Bad performances can happen and are not that serious - even with new players. You can't, say, sell him, get a new one.

You can't just say, 'This team's going to win,' or 'This team's going to lose.' Anything can happen. So what you can control is winning your game as much as possible. If you don't do that, and then the other team has a chance to lose, and they lose, and you didn't go about it the right way, now you just let that slip.

When you're playing a good team, not too many point guards want to go one on one. When you're playing a not-so-good team, teams that are fighting to make the playoffs, guys are going to want to try and get their own. It's just a different read of each team.

I am not obsessed, but it is natural that doing well for PSG is the only way I can push back into the squad.

At the end of the day you never know what team still wants what player. You just never know with the draft.

You pick guys in the first round - whenever you pick guys - you pick them for a reason.

I want everybody to feel he has a chance to get into a game when he comes to the ballpark. I play guys when I want to so they'll be ready when I have to. I don't consider myself a motivator of players. I think it's an insult to a ballplayer to have to be motivated.

He shouldn't have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard.

In the NFL you get one first-round draft pick if you're lucky. You couldn't really outwork anybody else. In college I could recruit ten players with first-round talent every year.