Danny Ainge Quotes

I think the hardest part, and where we have to stay the most disciplined, as much as you want a player, you can't invent him if he doesn't exist.

My job is to bring in players I think can help this team, regardless of where they're playing.

When you're a general manager, you don't get to see every single player, so you have to rely on your scouts.

Now, would we like to have that super quarterback? Absolutely. And if we have the opportunity to get that person or develop that person, that's what we'll do.

I've always thought that having an attractive free agent is better than a guy who was picked in the seventh round.

General managers - I like to talk about the 'golden gut': general managers that not only can have a sense for the players that are going to perform beyond what people expect and get team chemistry right, but they also have to be able to make trades.

A winning model would mean trying to get the best possible players that you can, at whatever age they are; it doesn't matter.

Maybe it's old-fashioned, but I've always preferred to see players with my own eyes than on a video or going on somebody else's recommendation. If that means getting up early and taking a flight, then so be it. Our success at Everton came from having a great recruitment team who I made sure were out watching the players.

Any time you get a chance to acquire a really good football player, I'm all about that.

Once you identify positional needs, then I think, then, what you do is, you be very selective on how you go about acquiring those players. You have to look at the resources available on how to acquire those players, and then, if you can, go acquire those assets that can best help this team get over the hump.

Like any year, any year with any team, you're always going to look to the draft to help strengthen your roster and free agency.

Whether it's drafting or player development, the ultimate is putting a team together.

Every season I think it's right every great team tries to improve the quality of the team.

I don't get involved in recruitment like people think I do. There's a myth that I look at YouTube and choose players. I don't. Having an eye for players is an art. I have no interest in doing that.

The most important thing in IPL is to select the players. You don't get much time to develop a team so it's important to pick the right players.

You're in pro football, it's kind of interesting, because when you win, you draft last. In college football, you recruit. You gotta go after guys.

My goal is to outwork everybody in recruiting, sign the best players in the state, and turn these guys into the best team we can.

It's all about putting the best team together - not just in the front office but the players on the field.

We draft mostly high school kids and we have one of the finest, if not the finest, player development programs and coaching staffs and we teach our players the right way to play. We also have a game plan in scouting, and there are certain types of players that we look for.

My job, when it comes to free agency, trades, is not to pick players, but support the personnel department and the coaching staff. We have to have the financial resources to make things happen and that's my job.

So I'm going to tell you, it's going to be a good year. There are good players all over this country, and it is our job as a scouting department to find them, draft them, sign them, develop them, and help us to continue to win championships. So it's going to be a good year.

I wouldn't want to go out six nights a week and watch somebody's reserves playing to check out a footballer to see if we're going to buy him.

You go to the draft board and think, 'Here's a nose tackle. Who needs a nose tackle?' Well, eight teams in front of you need a nose tackle, and there's two nose tackles. It's something you have to figure out where you can get the players to play in your system.

I think I have the skills. I'm a great judge of talent. I just know basketball.

Smart drafting is a wonderful thing. A smart free-agent signing is a wonderful thing. Smart trades are a wonderful thing, and that's a function of management.